Hepatitis C virus infection: evidence for an association with type 2 diabetes.

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. 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 …