Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is associated with metabolic conditions such as insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes and may increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Dr Younossi and colleagues assessed the association of chronic Hepatitis C with risk factors for cardiovascular diseases using US population data.
The team used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys collected between 1999 and 2010.
Of 19,741 participants considered eligible for the study, 173 individuals had detectable HCV RNA and were considered to have chronic hepatitis C .
The doctors noted that compared with controls, chronic hepatitis C patients were predominantly African American men, more likely to be between 45 and 55 years of age, had higher rate of insulin resistance, hypertension, and history of smoking.
In multivariate analysis, in addition to known risk factors for insulin resistance, chronic hepatitis C was independently associated with the presence of insulin resistance, diabetes and hypertension.
|Hep C was independently associated with the presence of insulin resistance|
|Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics|
The researchers found that independent predictors of cardiovascular diseases included older age, presence of obesity and smoking.
Dr Younossi's team concluded, "Chronic hepatitis C was independently associated with congestive heart failure subtype of cardiovascular diseases but not ischemic heart disease and stroke."
"Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is independently associated with presence of metabolic conditions and congestive heart failure."