Prevalence of Hepatitis C Infection among Type 2 Diabetic Patients

There are some suggestions that an epidemiological association exist between HCV infection and type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of HCV infection in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). In a descriptive study, 400 patients with definite diagnosis of type 2 DM were recruited. After gathering the demographic and clinical data they underwent physical examinations, and fasting venous blood samples were taken and examined for blood sugar and serum levels of triglyceride (TG) and cholesterol. Serum titer of antibodies against hepatitis C virus was also measured in all of them, using the third-generation ELISA method. Four hundred diabetic patients (M/F 268/132, mean age 54.87±8.36 years) were studied. The mean duration of Diabetes diagnosis was 9.26±7.04 years. History of smoking was positive in 154 (38.5%) patients. The mean body mass index was 26.59±4.53 kg/m2. The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures of the patients were 141.50±25.46 mmHg and 77.93±18.47 mmHg, respectively. Blood levels of FBS and serum TG and cholesterol were 133.30±20.61 mg/dL, 229.02±112.14 mg/dL and 197.53±75.66 mg/dL respectively. Based on the results of ELISA test, 10 (2.5%) patients were infected with HCV (95%CI: 0.9-4.1 percent). Prevalence of HCV infection has been estimated to be less than 1% among Iranian general population. We found a higher rate of infection (almost 2.5 times) in our type 2 diabetic studied population.