Hepatitis C virus infection in hemodialysis patients is not associated with insulin resistance, inflammation and atherosclerosis.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with increased levels of inflammatory markers and is also a significant risk factor for the development of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) in the general population. In attempt to address this issue in chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients, we evaluated the relation of HCV infection with inflammatory markers, endothelial dysfunction, insulin resistance and atherosclerosis.

METHODS: In a cohort of 72 HD patients (36 (50%) had a positive HCV EIA test and 36 (50%) had a negative anti-HCV test), we examined HCV antibody status, insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and beta-cell function (HOMA-beta), serum inflammatory parameters (high sensitive C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen and procalcitonin), and performed echocardiography, high-resolution brachial artery ultrasound and B-mode carotid Doppler examination to assess the vascular functions and atherosclerosis.

RESULTS: There were no differences in age, gender, body mass index (BMI), primary disease, duration of dialysis, smoking status, laboratory parameters except glucose, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol between anti-HCV-positive and anti-HCV-negative groups. The serum concentrations of glucose, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol were significantly lower in the anti-HCV-positive patients than anti-HCV-negative patients (p = 0.04, p = 0.02, p = 0.01, respectively). There were no significant differences in inflammatory parameters, total insulin secretion (HOMA-beta, p = 0.76) and insulin resistance (HOMA-R, p = 0.91) between anti-HCV-positive and negative patients. The intima media thickness, carotid plaque score and brachial artery endothelium-dependent dilatation did not differ significantly between the two groups (p = 0.44, 0.45, and 0.17, respectively).

CONCLUSION: HCV infection was not related to atherosclerosis and insulin resistance in hemodialysis patients. Since hemodialysis patients had a large number of uremia-related cardiovascular risk factors, the effect of HCV infection could disappear in this group of patients.