title: Hepatitis C virus infection and heart diseases: a multicenter study in Japan.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Kyoto University, Japan.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matsumori
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ohashi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sasayama
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Eto
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Imaizumi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Izumi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kawamura
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawana
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kitabatake
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsuzaki
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nagai
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hiroe
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hori
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Inoko
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Seko
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sekiguchi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shimotohno
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sugishita
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takihara
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yokoyama
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies