Prevalence of hepatitis C among diabetes mellitus patients in Zahedan

Several clinical studies have recently claimed that HCV infection could trigger the onset of diabetes mellitus (DM). In order to determine the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) among patients with type 1, 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and investigate the influence of several epidemiological factors on HCV infection, we conducted this study. In this case-control study we evaluated 505 diabetic patients (135 male, 370 female with the mean age of 54.5 years) who had referred to Diabetic clinic in Boo-Ali hospital (a teaching hospital in south east of Iran) in 2004. Serologic testing for anti- HCV was done using a third–generation commercial enzyme–linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Real–time–PCR (HCV RNA) in order to confirm the anti-HCV positive samples. Diabetic patients were divided in two groups according to their HCV antibody status and were analyzed for the following variables: age, sex, type of diabetes, duration of disease, mode of therapy, late diabetic complication, previous blood transfusions, intravenous drug addiction, hospital admissions and major surgical procedures. Then results were compared with the findings from blood donors. HCV infection was detected in one patient who had history of hospitalization and blood transfusion. However, a higher prevalence of HCV infection was not observed in diabetic patients in comparison with blood donors (p=0.46).There was no correlation between HCV and diabetic type, duration, age, sex (p>0.05). Upon the results of our study, we conclude that HCV infection is not a trigger factor for DM; therefore it should not be listed among the various extrahepatic manifestations of this viral infection. Although, further studies, possibly multicentre, are needed to estimate prevalence of HCV in diabetic patients.