Hepatitis C Virus Infection among Patients with Chronic Liver Disease in an Area Hyperendemic for Hepatitis B

Tsai J-F, Jeng J-E, Chang W-Y, Lin Z-Y, Tsai J-H. Hepatitis C virus infection among patients with chronic liver disease in an area hyperendemic for hepatitis B. Scand J Gastroenterol 1994;29:550-552.Background: The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection was assessed in patients with nonalcoholic chronic liver disease (CLD).Methods: Antibody levels to HCV (anti-HCV) were assessed in 100 pairs of CLD patients and healthy controls.Results: The prevalence of anti-HCV was higher in patients (26.0%) than in controls (2.0% p = 0.0001). The patient group with anti-HCV was older (p equals; 0.0001) and had more smokers (p equals; 0.034), fewer hepatitis B surface antigen carriers (p equals; 0.0001), and more patients with active liver disease (p equals; 0.023) and a history of blood transfusion (p equals; 0.026). Multivariate analysis showed that anti-HCV (odds ratio, 8.1; 95% confidence intervals, 3.7-17.6) was strongly associated with CLD.Conclusions: HCV infection is a risk factor of non-alcoholic CLD, and HCV causes more severe hepatocellular damage than HBV.