Hepatitis C virus infection and heart diseases: a multicenter study in Japan.
As a collaborative research project of the Committees for the Study of Idiopathic Cardiomyopathy, a questionnaire was sent out to 19 medical institutions in Japan in order to examine the possible association between hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and cardiomyopathies. Hepatitis C virus antibody was found in 74 of 697 patients (10.6%) with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (mean age, 57.7 years) and in 42 of 663 patients (6.3%) with dilated cardiomyopathy (mean age, 56.5 years); these prevalences were significantly higher than that found in volunteer blood donors in Japan (2.4%, 50-59 years of age, each p<0.0001). The prevalence was significantly higher in patients suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy as opposed to those with dilated cardiomyopathy (p<0.01). The presence of HCV antibody was detected in 650 of 11,967 patients (5.4%) patients seeking care in 5 academic hospitals. Various cardiac abnormalities were found among these patients, arrhythmias being the most frequent. These observations suggest that HCV infection is an important cause of a variety of otherwise unexplained heart diseases.
Matsumori
A
A
Kyoto University, Japan.
Ohashi
N
N
Hasegawa
K
K
Sasayama
S
S
Eto
T
T
Imaizumi
T
T
Izumi
T
T
Kawamura
K
K
Kawana
M
M
Kimura
A
A
Kitabatake
A
A
Matsuzaki
M
M
Nagai
R
R
Tanaka
H
H
Hiroe
M
M
Hori
M
M
Inoko
H
H
Seko
Y
Y
Sekiguchi
M
M
Shimotohno
K
K
Sugishita
Y
Y
Takeda
N
N
Takihara
K
K
Tanaka
M
M
Yokoyama
M
M
D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000821:virology; D006321:Heart / Q000821:virology; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000821:virology*; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000276:immunology; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000150:complications*; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies