354 Autoimmune Hepatitis Misdiagnosed as Hepatitis C Responding to Interferon/Ribavirine Therapy

351 Prevalence of Thyroid Peroxidase Autoantibodies (ANTI-TPO) in Women with Autoimmune Connective Tissue Diseases (ACTD) Georgios Papadopoulos, MD, Anastasia Vakaloudi, PhD, Eirene Koutsika, MD, Ekarerini Anastasiou, MD, and Asimoula Koteli, MD. Immunology Laboratory, General Hospital Agios Pavlos, Thessaloniki, Greece. Background: Chronic autoimmune thyroiditis, manifested by positive test for antithyroid antibodies, is common in the general population, occurring in 10 to 20 percent of women. The aim of the study was to determine whether Anti-TPO is more prevalent in women with ACTD, compared to the general population. Methods: Anti-TPO was determined in 290 women diagnosed with ACTD based on ACR (American College of Rheumatology) criteria and in 50 healthy women (control group). Among ACTD patients, 121 were diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), 44 Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), 43 Sjogren’s Syndrome (SS), 42 Systemic Scleroderma (SScl) and 40 Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA). Anti-TPO was measured by Chemiluminescent Microparticle Immunoassay (CMIA) on Architect i2000SR (ABBOT Laboratories). Results: The prevalence of Anti-TPO in separate groups of patients had as follow: RA 28.93%, SLE 29.55%, SS 27.91%, SScl 23.81%, PsA 30% and control group 12%. Conclusions: ACTD and thyroid autoimmune diseases often overlap with each other. Increased Anti-TPO may be most common among women patients with ACTD. On the other hand, these systemic diseases are often present in Hasimoto’s thyroiditis subjects. Therefore it is clinically important to screen women patients with ACTD for the co-existence of thyroid disorders.