Hepatitis C Virus Infection
Evidence for an association with type 2 diabetes
- Alessandro Antonelli, MD1,
- Clodoveo Ferri, MD2,
- Poupak Fallahi, MD1,
- Alessandro Pampana, MD3,
- Silvia Martina Ferrari1,
- Fernando Goglia, PHD4 and
- Ele Ferrannini, MD1
- 1Metabolism Unit, Department of Internal Medicine and CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
- 2Rheumatology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Modena, Modena, Italy
- 3Division of Medicine, S. Chiara Hospital, Pisa, Italy
- 4Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy
- Address correspondence and reprint requests to Alessandro Antonelli, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Pisa, School of Medicine, via Roma, 67, I-56100, Pisa, Italy. E-mail: a.antonelli{at}med.unipi.it
An increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance has been consistently found in liver cirrhosis from any cause (1–3). Less clear is whether hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with type 2 diabetes in the absence of cirrhosis. Several reports have claimed a specific association between HCV infection and type 2 diabetes, but in most instances, patients were a mixture of cases with cirrhosis and hepatitis (4–6). Two clinic-based studies found an excess of type 2 diabetes in noncirrhotic HCV+ (NC-HCV+) patients compared with patients with chronic hepatitis of other origin (7–9), but another large study could not detect it (10). Furthermore, one clinic-based small study found a specific association with type 2 diabetes in NC-HCV+ patients (11) compared with a general population sample.
The aim of this study was to establish the prevalence and clinical phenotype of type 2 diabetes in a large series of NC-HCV+ patients. A sample of the general population or patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related noncirrhotic chronic hepatitis (NC-HBV+) was used as control subjects.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
From January 1995 to December 2001, 564 NC-HCV+ patients were consecutively examined at our center (none had been previously treated with interferon). Diagnosis of HCV infection was based on abnormal serum aminotransferases levels of >6 months’ duration and positive testing for serum anti-HCV markers and …
