Hepatitis C and poor quality of life: is it the virus or the patient?
Hepatitis C is a systemic disease that has many extrahepatic manifestations in addition to hepatic inflammation and fibrosis, some of which may result in a poor health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Fatigue is perhaps the most frequent and disabling extrahepatic symptom of hepatitis C virus (HCV), reported in almost one-half of all chronically infected individuals. Many other factors are associated with a poor quality of life in patients with HCV, including a number of physical and psychological factors. The objective of this article is to review the association between HCV and impaired HRQOL due to fatigue and psychological disturbances.
Abdo
Ayman A
AA
Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. aabdo@ksu.edu.sa