Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in Hashimoto's thyroiditis

Abstract
EDITOR,—Duclos-Vallee et al have reported that infection with hepatitis C virus may have a role in triggering Hashimoto's thyroiditis.1 Using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), they detected antibodies to hepatitis C virus in 12 of 50 patients, and a second generation recombinant immunoblot assay confirmed the finding in five of the 12 cases. As we did not see such a high prevalence of hepatitis C in our outpatients we retested 118 consecutive patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis for possible infection …