MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Adeel A. Butt, MD, MS, FACP, FIDSA
Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine and Clinical and Translational Science
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Butt: Studying
clinical consequences of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is often
limited by the lack of knowledge of actual time of infection. We used
the Electronically Retrieved Cohort of HCV-Infected Veterans (ERCHIVES),
a well-established national cohort of HCV infected veterans and
corresponding HCV-uninfected controls, to identify patients with a known
time frame for HCV infection. Our primary aim was to determine the rate
of liver fibrosis progression among HCV-infected persons over time,
with and to determine factors associated with development of cirrhosis
and hepatic decompensation among these persons.
Among 1840 persons who were HCV+ and 1840 HCV− controls, we found
that fibrosis progression started early after HCV infection tapered off
after 5 years. After 10 years of follow-up, 18.4% of HCV+
and 6.1% of HCV- persons developed liver cirrhosis. Nine years after
diagnosis of cirrhosis, only 1.8% of HCV+ and 0.3% of HCV- persons had
developed hepatic decompensation.
MedicalResearch: What clinicians and should patients take away from your report?
Read more....Labels: rate of fibrosis progression, Veterans