Carotid Intima Media Thickness in HCV Infected Egyptian Patients and its Relation to Viral Load and Genotype: A Preliminary Study
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- Category: Vol. 80, September 2012
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Carotid Intima Media Thickness in HCV Infected Egyptian Patients and its Relation to Viral Load and Genotype: A Preliminary Study,ABIR ZAKARIA, MERVATE NAGUIB, RAGAI M.F.R. FOUDA and LAILA RASHED
Abstract
Introduction and Aim: Contrasting results were obtained from different studies regarding carotid intima media thickness (IMT) in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients. The current study was done to explore carotid IMT in HCV infected Egyptian patients and to detect possible relation between viral load or genotype and carotid IMT in these patients.
Subjects and Methods: Sixty treatment naive HCV infected patients and 20 healthy control subjects participated in the study. HCV infection was diagnosed in those with a positive polymerase chain reaction to HCV-RNA in serum and testing was done to detect viral genotype. Carotid IMT was measured for all participants using B-mode duplex imaging study. Diabetic, hypertensive, dyslipidaemic patients, or those known to have coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular stroke or HIV infection were excluded from the study.
Results: Mean carotid IMT of HCV infected patients was significantly greater than that of healthy control subjects (0.79±0.28 mm versus 0.56±0.004 mm, p-value 0.00). Carotid IMT did not appear to be significantly correlated to viral load. Mean carotid IMT of HCV genotype 4a infected patients was not significantly different from that of HCV non-4a genotype infected patients (0.08±0.03 mm versus 0.08±0.02), p-value 0.276).
Conclusion: Mean carotid IMT of HCV infected Egyptians of a low cardiovascular risk was significantly greater than that of healthy controls. No significant correlation was detected between HCV viral load and carotid IMT in the studied patients. Mean carotid IMT of HCV genotype 4a infected patients did not differ significantly from those of HCV non-4a genotype infected patients.