Increased risk of type 2 diabetes in noncirrhotic patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection without evidence of cirrhosis have an increased risk of diabetes mellitus (DM) and to evaluate possible risk factors for diabetes in this group.


METHODS
We conducted a case-control study of 45 consecutive eligible patients with HCV infection and no clinical, scintigraphic, or histological evidence of cirrhosis, and a control group of 90 subjects without liver disease matched by age, sex, and body mass index and similar in their origin distribution. Eighty-eight patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection with no evidence of cirrhosis were also evaluated. The diagnosis of diabetes was based on the 1997 American Diabetes Association criteria.


RESULTS
Fifteen patients (33%) with HCV infection were found to have type 2 diabetes compared with 5.6% in the control group without liver disease (P < .001) and 12% in the group with HBV infection (P = .004). Comparison of the patients with and without diabetes revealed that positive family history of diabetes, HCV 1b genotype, and a more severe liver histology were significantly associated with DM.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with chronic HCV infection have an increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes, and this prevalence is independent of cirrhosis. The pathogenesis is intriguing, appears to be unique to HCV, and requires further study.
Knobler
H
H
Department of Medicine and Metabolic Unit, Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot, Israel.
Schihmanter
R
R
Zifroni
A
A
Fenakel
G
G
Schattner
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000201:enzymology / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000150:complications* / Q000201:enzymology; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000821:virology; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012306:Risk