[Interferon therapy in chronic viral hepatitis; an autoimmunity dilemma].

The era of interferon (IFN) administration in the treatment of patients with chronic viral hepatitis creates an essential turning point for therapy of these diseases. Incessant progress of the new, more efficient and lower side effects of interferon causes decrease in treatment withdrawal. The side effects like myalgia, nausea, fatigue and loss of appetite, usually with good reaction for symptomatic treatment and intensity of the symptoms decreases during treatment continuation. Due to strong immuno-modulatory activities and long-lasting therapy, autoimmune diseases are observed in some cases. Therefore treatment process should be carefully and trifle monitored especially in autoantibodies appearance aspect. To the most common interferon mediated autoimmune diseases belong thyroiditis, autoimmune hepatitis and thrombocytopenia. Interstitial pneumonitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, type I diabetes mellitus, asthma and sarcoidosis exacerbation as well as glomerular diseases are observed rarely. In our paper we discus an issue of autoimmune diseases induction phenomena caused by interferon therapy administrated in the treatment of chronic viral hepatitis.