title: Immune and autoimmune disorders in HCV chronic liver disease: personal experience and commentary on literature.
abstract: HCV chronic liver disease can be associated with a plethora of immune and autoimmune perturbations and many authors claim that HCV chronic infection can play an important role in the pathogenesis of these disorders. To compare our experience with literature reports, we performed a retrospective study on the case histories of 265 patients with HCV chronic liver disease, evaluating the type and prevalence of the associated immune and autoimmune manifestations. We found that the patients with HCV chronic liver disease can present arthromyalgias (7.1% of the patients), Sjörgen's syndrome (5.2%), thyroiditis (4.1%), rheumatoid arthritis (2.2%), autoimmune thrombocytopenia (2.6%), mixed cryoglobulinemia (1.5%), autoimmune anemia (0.3%) and oral lichen planus (0.3%). We claim that HCV liver infection is able to induce immune and autoimmune perturbations, without playing a significant role in the pathogenesis of a well-defined disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Endocrine-Metabolic Sciences and Biochemistry, University of Siena, Italy. giordanon@unisi.it
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Giordano
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amendola
authors.forename: Panayotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Papakostas
authors.forename: Fiorenza
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cipolli
authors.forename: Vita Maria
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Agate
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Battisti
authors.forename: Bruna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Marchi
authors.forename: Ranuccio
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nuti
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000744:Anemia, Hemolytic, Autoimmune / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology; D003449:Cryoglobulinemia / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000150:complications* / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007154:Immune System Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology; D017676:Lichen Planus, Oral / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016553:Purpura, Thrombocytopenic, Idiopathic / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012859:Sjogren's Syndrome / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology; D013966:Thyroiditis / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology