Prevalence of autoantibodies and the risk of autoimmune thyroid disease in children with chronic hepatitis C virus infection treated with interferon-α

Table 4 Overview of the thyroid function and auto-antibody titers of the 12 children who developed pathologic values during the course of IFN-α treatment Median (range)

Treatment	TGA1	TPOAb2	TSH3	FT34	FT45
Before	29.0 (9.4-53.0)	3.2 (0-41.0)	2.7 (1.0-5.5)	3.15 (2.1-5.3)	1.2 (1.1-1.3)
During	100.0 (8.0-141.0)	82.5a (4-3 909)	7.3a (1.7-76.0)	2.12 (1.1-4.3)	1 (0.4-1.3)
After	40.0 (13-163.0)	4.5 (0-289.0)	2.2 (0.9-4.2)	4.0 (2.0-5.3)	1.1 (1.0-1.3)

^aP < 0.05 vs before and after treatment.

¹Thyroglobulin antibody (normal range < 50 U/L);

²Thyroid peroxidase antibody (normal range < 35 IU/mL);

³Thyroid-stimulating hormone (normal range 0.3-4.2 mU/L);

⁴Free triiodothyronine (normal range 1.8-4.6 ng/L);

⁵Free thyroxine (normal range 7-19 ng/L).