A systematic review and meta-analysis of endocrine-related adverse events associated with interferon

Abstract

ObjectivesTo perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of interferon and endocrine side effects, including their incidence, evaluation, and management.MethodsPubMed was searched through March 7th, 2021, by 2 authors independently (LH Wang and H Zhao). Early phase I/II, phase III experimental trials, prospective and retrospective observational studies were included. Stata 16.0 (StataCorp LLC, 16.0) was the main statistical software for meta-analysis. The weighted incidence and risk ratio were estimated for primary thyroid disease and diabetes mellitus.ResultsA total of 108 studies involving 46265 patients were included. Hypothyroidism was the most common thyroid disorder, followed by hyperthyroidism. IFN α+RBV treated patients experienced hypothyroidism in 7.8% (95%CI, 5.9-9.9), which was higher than IFN α (5.2%; 95%CI, 3.7-6.8) and IFN β (7.0%; 95%CI, 0.06-23.92). IFN α+RBV treated patients experienced hyperthyroidism in 5.0% (95%CI, 3.6-6.5), which was higher than IFN α (3.5%; 95%CI, 2.5-4.8) and IFN β (3.4%; 95%CI, 0.9-7.5). The summary estimated incidence of painless thyroiditis was 5.8% (95%CI, 2.8-9.8) for IFN α, and 3.5% (95%CI,1.9-5.5) for IFN α+RBV. The summary estimated incidence of diabetes was 1.4% (95%CI, 0.3-3.1) for IFN, 0.55% (95%CI, 0.05-1.57) for IFN α, 3.3% (95%CI,1.1-6.6) for IFN α+RBV.ConclusionsOur meta-analysis shows a high incidence of endocrine adverse events provoked by IFN, further reinforced by combined RBV treatment.Systematic Review Registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD42022334131.

Assessment of Thyroid Functions in Multiple Sclerosis Patients Treated with Disease Modifying Therapies

“…There is no clear consensus on whether MS treatment treatment butffects thyroid function and autoantibody levels, according to our results, it is worthy to note that the level of (FT4) significantly decreased while (TSH) increased in our patients after six months of receiving the treatment compared to baseline levels although it's still in the normal range, which was similar to A systematic review and meta-analysis of endocrine abnormalities associated with interferon therapy which found that the proportion of hypothyroidism was higher than that of hyperthyroidism (23,24), on the other hand, the anti-TPO and anti-TG have increased significantly in our patients after three months of receiving the treatment, but return to near its previous level after 6 months of therapy, which is consistent with the other studies that performed by (Monzani et al, 1999) (25) and (Caraccio et al, 2005) (26). This can be explained by the fact that interferon beta maintains the anti-inflammatory status of the immune system.…”