{mosimage}Hepatitis C linked to severe kidney disease

Last Updated: 2007-06-26 16:45:45 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adults infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) are at increased risk for developing end-stage kidney disease, a serious disease that requires lifelong dialysis or kidney transplantation, investigators report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Research has shown that the liver is not the only organ affected by HCV, Dr. Judith I. Tsui and her associates note. Still, the impact that this virus has on kidney disease has not been well-defined.

In the new study, Tsui, from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco, and her team linked data from Medicare, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the United States Renal Data System. Their goal was to see if HCV infection was associated with end-stage kidney disease.

The study group included 474,000 veterans who were tested for HCV within 1 year of a having blood levels of creatinine measured, a simple test of kidney function. Of these subjects, 53,000 tested positive for HCV.

HCV infection nearly tripled the risk of end-stage kidney disease, the results indicate. However, this finding was only apparent in subjects younger than 70 years of age and was most pronounced in those with normal or near-normal kidney function when the study began.

"Patients with HCV are more likely to experience rapid decline in (kidney) function," the authors conclude.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, June 25, 2007.

http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2007/06/26/eline/links/20070626elin024.html 

Thanks to the Hepatitis C Council of QLD. 

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