Veterans with chronic kidney disease and hepatitis C virus infection
were found to have an increased rate of mortality, risk of lower kidney
function and incidence of loss of kidney function vs. veterans without
the infection, according to new study data.
“Hepatitis C affects 4 million Americans [and] previous studies have not
established unanimously whether hepatitis C is associated with the
development and progression of chronic kidney disease,” Csaba P. Kovesdy, MD,
director of the Clinical Outcomes and Clinical Trials Program at
Memphis VA Medical Center in Tenn., told Healio.com/Hepatology. “[The
study] examined the association of hepatitis C infection with mortality,
with the development of new onset chronic kidney disease, with end
stage renal disease and with the speed of loss of kidney function in
over 1 million U.S. veterans. We found that hepatitis C infection was
associated with a significantly increased risk of all these end points.”
Labels: chronic kidney disease (CKD), mortality statistics