Thyroid disorders spectrum

The spectrum of interferon alfa-induced thyroid disorders ranges from asymptomatic appearance or increase in antithyroid autoantibody titers to moderate or severe clinical features of hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and acute biphasic thyroiditis. Antithyroid hormone antibodies have also been found in one patient, and this could have been the cause of erroneously raised thyroid hormone concentrations (504). 

The spectrum of interferon alfa-induced thyroid disorders ranges from asymptomatic appearance or increase in antithyroid autoantibody titers to moderate or severe... 

The possibility of autoimmune disorders during interferon alfa treatment has been addressed by many authors. The spectrum of interferon alfa-induced immune diseases includes organ-specific and systemic autoimmune diseases, such as thyroiditis, diabetes, hematological disorders, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, dermatological disease, and myasthenia gravis (156). Several have been discussed in appropriate sections elsewhere in this monograph. The exact role of interferon alfa is usually difficult to ascertain, because the underlying disease, that is chronic hepatitis C, can also be associated with immune-mediated disease. 

For the vast majority of clinicians, hypothyroxinemia is regarded as a physiological condition, not requiring treatment and not to be included in the well-defined spectrum of thyroid underfunction disorders, such as subclinical or overt hypothyroidism. In 2000 however, the review by Gabriella Morreale de Escobar entitled... 

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