Immune response in chronic hepatitis C–infected patients undergoing interferon treatment

✍ Scribed by Antonietta Cargnel; Guido Gubertini; Carlo Magnani; Simona Bosis; Fulvia Colombo; Mario Clerici

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 24 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0270-9139
• DOI: 10.1002/hep.510300226

✦ Synopsis

The findings of Mason et al. 1 on diabetes mellitus and hepatitis C are similar to our own, reported at the 8th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. 2 In our study, diabetes was found in 34.7% and 2.7% of chronic hepatitis C and chronic hepatitis B patients, respectively (P Ͻ .001). On the other hand, in a diabetic cohort the anti-HCV positivity (6%) was significantly higher than the control (0.6%) (P Ͻ .05), but the HBsAg positivity (5%) was similar to the control. A notable difference, however, is that even after elimination of patients with predisposing factors, diabetes was found in a higher percentage (11%) of chronic hepatitis B patients in Mason' s study compared with our own (2.7%). Also, when the cirrhotic patients and those with predisposing factors to diabetes were eliminated, the prevalence of diabetes in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus and hepatitis B virus infection did not differ significantly (11% vs. 16%; P ϭ .26 [Fig. 1B in Mason 1 ]). Perhaps the prevalence of known predisposing factors (e.g., Asian descent, age, alcohol abuse) were higher in their cohorts with hepatitis B.