Correlation between diabetes and heptites C
The highest Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) prevalence in the world occurs in Egypt at an estimated 12% among the general population [1] and reaches 40% in persons 40 years of age and above in rural areas [2]. HCV Genotype 4 is the predominant genotype being isolated from up to 91% of HCV-infected persons in Egypt [3]. The origin of the HCV epidemic in Egypt has been attributed to intravenous schistosomiasis treatment in rural areas in the 1960s-70s4. Although HCV targets at the liver, it has become interestingly evident that HCV can induce diseases of many organs. Cacoub et al. [5] reported that 38% of patients with HCV would manifest at least one extrahepatic manifestation during the illness.Extrahepatic (EH) manifestations associated with HCV infection include endocrinological manifestations such as diabetes mellitus (DM) [6] and thyroiditis [7], rheumatologic manifestations such as arthralgias, arthritis [8] and mixed cryoglobulinemia [9].
Other
The highest Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) prevalence in the world occurs in Egypt. Several studies from different parts of the world have found that 13% to 33% of patients with chronic HCV have associated diabetes, mostly type II Diabetes Mellitus (DM). In Egypt the prevalence of DM is 25.4% among HCV patients. Therefore, it is important to identify the magnitude of the problem of diabetes in order to optimize the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. The objective of this report was to evaluate the prevalence of DM and other extrahepatic (EH) manifestations among patients with different HCV morbidity stages including asymptomatic, chronic hepatic and cirrhotic patients. In this study, 289 HCV patients older than 18 were selected as cases. Also, 289 healthy controls were included. Laboratory investigations including Liver Function tests (LFT) and blood glucose level were done. Also serological assays including cryoglobulin profile, rheumatoid factor, antinuclear antibody, HCV-PCR were performed.
