Clinical, biochemical and pathological profiles of 5464 Egyptian chronic hepatitis C-infected patients.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND/AIMS: In Egypt, hepatitis C virus (HC is highly endemic with at least 91% are genotype-4. However, HCV-specific burden data for Egypt are scarce. The study aims to identify clinical, biochemical and pathological features of chronic HCV population in Egypt. METHODOLOGY: We analyzed retrospective data of 5,464 HCV-antibody and PCR positive patients attending pre-treatment assessment at one of the National Treatment Centers, Cairo, Egypt. RESULTS: Chronic HCV patients were males (81.4%) in their productive age, mean body mass index (BMI) 28 kg/m2. Laboratory profile demonstrated mean platelet count 214 x 10(3)/µ L with only 14% having thrombocytopenia, amino-transferases were mildly elevated mean AST, ALT were 56 and 63 respectively,low viraemia 50% had viral load <100 (x 10(3)) IU/mL,and median AFP level 3.3 ng/mL. Liver biopsy revealed ≤A2 in 92% of patients; 80% had ≤F2 and 7.3 % had F4 according to the METAVIR score. Meta regression demonstrated that advanced stages of fibrosis were significantly correlated with platelet count, AST/ALT ratio, AFP levels and BMI (p <0.001). However there was no correlation with viral load. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first study on nationwide scale that provided the demographic, biochemical,and histological characteristics for this number of chronic HCV patients presumably genotype-4.