title: Sarcoidosis in untreated chronic hepatitis C virus infection.
abstract: Chronic hepatitis C has been implicated in the pathogenesis of sarcoidosis in several cases of patients treated with interferon-alpha. On the other hand, only in a few cases previously has a possible link between sarcoidosis and untreated chronic hepatitis C virus infection been demonstrated. We report on a patient with chronic hepatitis C who developed cutaneous sarcoidosis without prior interferon-alpha treatment. We hypothesize that viral persistence seen in chronic hepatitis C virus infection might be one of the potential factors that trigger cellular immune response in granulomatous reactions as seen in sarcoidosis, in genetically predisposed patients.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Internal Medicine, Sotiria General Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece. fotistsi@otenet.gr
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tsimpoukas
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Goritsas
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Papadopoulos
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Trigidou
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferti
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012507:Sarcoidosis / Q000209:etiology*; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000209:etiology*