Factors associated with severity and disease progression in chronic hepatitis C
Tassopoulos, N.C.; Papatheodoridis, G.V.; Katsoulidou, A.; Delladetsima, J.K.; Sypsa, V.; Touloumi, G.; Nikandros, M.; Hatzakis, A.
Hepato-Gastroenterology 45(23): 1678-1683
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0172-6390 PMID: 9840128 Document Number: 487875
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Chronic hepatitis C appears to have a highly variable natural course with 20% of patients developing cirrhosis within 20 years, while the majority of them run a relatively mild course. We studied the relationships of epidemiological, biochemical and virological features with histological severity (grade) and liver disease progression (stage). METHODOLOGY: Liver histology, serum HCV RNA level and HCV genotype were determined in a well-defined cohort of 152 consecutive (100 males, 52 females) patients with chronic hepatitis C. RESULTS: Patients with minimal or mild chronic hepatitis were significantly younger than those with moderate or severe chronic hepatitis (mean age: 41.1 vs 49.5 years respectively, p=0.003). On the other hand, patients with no or mild fibrosis compared to those with moderate or severe fibrosis and to those with cirrhosis were significantly more frequently males (73%, 64% and 43%, p=0.01), parenteral drug users (36%, 11% and 11%, p=0.01) and infected with other than lb genotype (86%, 52% and 33%, p<0.0001), significantly younger (mean age: 37, 48 and 58 years, p<0.0001) and had significantly lower HCV RNA levels (geometric mean: 6.9, 19.2 and 17.5 X 105 eq/ml, p=0.007). Multivariate analysis showed that stage was significantly related only to patient age (p < 0.000 1), HCV genotype (p=0.0025) and HCV RNA level (p=0.044). CONCLUSIONS: In chronic hepatitis C, histological severity seems to be associated only with patient age, while progression of the disease is mainly associated with patient age, HCV genotype and viremia level.