Association between Different Hepatitis C Virus Genotypes Infection and Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Descriptive-Analytical Study from the Northwest of Iran

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) are among the severe threats to health care systems worldwide. Here, we investigated the association of HCV genotypes and cirrhosis with T2DM among HCV-positive patients.

This descriptive-analytical study was performed from Jan 2017 to Jan 2018 at Sina Clinical-Educational infectious diseases ward, the reference center of infectious diseases in northwest Iran. All serology HCV–positive patients attending this center were included in the study. Forty-eight patients were included, 19 of which had a positive history of diabetes. Blood samples from patients were used for complete blood count, liver function tests, fasting blood sugar, HbA1C, HCV antibodies, and HCV genotype. Then the characteristics among patients with and without T2DM were compared. A P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

No significant difference in demographic variables were observed between patients with and without T2DM. Of 48 patients with HCV infection, 29 patients (39.58%) had T2DM.  The hepatitis C infection duration among diabetic and non-diabetic patients was 9.03 ± 0.76 years and 8.53 ± 1.01 years, respectively (P = 0.04). Of 8 patients with cirrhosis, six patients (75%) had diabetes. The relative risk for diabetic patients with HCV infection to develop cirrhosis was 4.57 (95% CI [1.02-20.36], P = 0.04). The most prevalent genotype was HCV type 1 among both diabetic and non-diabetic groups. No significant association was observed in logistic regression analysis between the HCV genotypes and T2DM (P = 1.000).

In the current study, we showed that patients with HCV infection are at a higher risk of developing T2DM, and T2DM showed to be a risk factor for the developing cirrhosis among patients with HCV infection.