Diabetes Is the Main Factor Accounting for the High Ferritin Levels Detected in Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection
Response to Lecube et al.
- Giada Sebastiani, MD,
- Alessandro Vario, MD and
- Alfredo Alberti, MD
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
- Address correspondence to Prof. Alfredo Alberti, MD, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Padova, Via Giustiniani 2, 35100 Padova, Italy. E-mail: alfredo.alberti{at}unipd.it
We read with interest the article by Lecube et al. (1) regarding the strong association they observed between diabetes and serum ferritin in chronic hepatitis C. We sought to analyze the contribution of biochemical, metabolic, and histological parameters to high ferritin levels detected in hepatitis C.
We investigated a large consecutive series of 177 patients with chronic hepatitis C who underwent a diagnostic liver biopsy. Serum ferritin was tested in a univariate analysis against demographics, biochemical parameters, and histological features. Patients with cirrhosis or with any alcohol intake were excluded. …
