Factors associated with the development of cirrhosis in patients with HCV chronic infection.
OBJECTIVE
The natural history of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection still has some details to be established, namely in what concerns progression to hepatic cirrhosis (HC). The study aims to define predictive factors for progression to HC in patients with HCV chronic infection.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was performed on 129 patients consecutively submitted to liver biopsy. Thirty-six percent (n=46) had HC at histological evaluation.


RESULTS
Patients with HC did not show statistically significant differences on gender, viruses genotypes, alcohol consumption or proportion of positivity to markers of previous hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection - anti-HBc/anti-HBs+. Patients with HC seem to have had their infection sporadically (50%) or post-transfusion (35%) -p=0.052, and iv drugs addiction was related to non-HC patients (39%) -p=0.006. Age at infection, time of infection and positivity for anti-HBc/anti-HBs were factors independently related to HC (multivariate analysis). Patients older than 40 years by the time of infection [OR=4.5 (95% CI=1.9-10.8], those with less than 5 years of time of infection [OR=4.2 (95% CI=1.6-10.8)], and patients with previous HBV infection [OR=2.51 (1.00-6.69)] are at higher risk for HC.


CONCLUSIONS
We argue that older patients, with a shorter time interval between HCV infection and diagnosis, and namely those with markers for previous HBV infection represent patients with higher risk for progression to hepatic cirrhosis.
Dinis-Ribeiro
Mario
M
Liver Unit, Department of Medicina II, University Hospital of Santa Maria, Lisbon, Portugal.
Ramalho
Fernando
F
Glória
Helena
H
Marinho
Rui
R
Raimundo
Miguel
M
Serejo
Fátima
F
Velosa
José
J
Carneiro-de-Moura
Miguel
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000150:complications; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors