Laboratory parameters characterizing chronically infected HCV patients attending viral hepatitis clinic at Benghazi Medical Centre.
Authors: Elhaddad Ahmed , Elhassi Ahmed , Daw Emad 
Published: December 2023

Background: Chronic hepatitis C is one of the leading causes of chronic liver disease. There are approximately 7 million chronically infected individuals worldwide, many of whom are unaware of their infection, with import ant variations according to the georraphical area. Hepatitis C is predominantly or almost exclusively acquired through percutaneous Exposure to blood. Genotype 4 is closely related to cont and northern Africa while there sa predominance of genotype lb in Western Europe and I in North America. The severity of disease varies from asymptomatic chronic infection to cirrhosin and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), Currently, hepatitis C is the leading cause for liver transplantation worldwide. Out of 100 people that contract the infection, 75-85 people will develop chronie infection, 60-70 people will develop chronic liver disease, and 5 to 20 people will develop cirrhosis over the course of their chronic infection and one to five people will die of complications including hepe tocellular carcinoma (HCC). Treatments for hepatitis Chave progressed to the point that more than 90% of the people who take the treatments can be cured, and, for many people, the treatment duration is much shorter than before. Now, we have interferon-free therapy. Importantly, the side effects of the newer treatments will be much less than the side effects of interferon based therapies. Antiviral therapy now allows many patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV to achieve a sustained virological response (SVR) which is namely the clearance of serum HCV RNA after therapy withdrawal, which is equivalent to cure.Aim: To evaluate the Laboratory parameters characterizing chronically infected HCV patients attending viral hepatitis cline at Benghazi Medical Centre.Patients and method: The cohort in our study was chronic HCV infected patients followed viral hepatitia clinic at Benghazi medical center. Inclusion criteria were are, sex, mode of infection, ALT, AST, PT, INR, Serum abumin, Alpha fetoprotein, HCV RNA level and grade of fibrosis using ultrasonography (USSL Procan or Fibro-ACi test. Patients co-infected with HBV or HIV were excluded. Data were analyzed using the SPSS Statistics (SPSS Inc., Chicago, US]version 17.0.Results: out of 161 patient, 77 are male (47.8%) and 84 are female (52.2%). The people are grouped into two groups, cirrhotic and non-cirrhetic based on USS abdomen, fibeo scan or bro-ACTi test. The mean PCR for dir thesis is 5.99 log and for non-cirrhosis 5.97 lor (P=0.82). The mean albumin for cirrhosis is 3.73mand for noncirrhosis 4 (P<0.001). The mean platelet for cirrhotie 168,108/micre litter and for non-c hote 223,80/ micro litter (P<0.001). The INR for cirrbotic 1.23 and for non-cinthos 1.16 with P=0.89. The mean bilirubin for cirrhot 0.75 mg/dl and 0.73 mg/dl for non-cirrhosis P-0.87). The mean fasting blood glucose for cirrhosis 119.4 m and for non-cirrhosis102mg%(P=008).Conclusion: because of the big burden of HCV infection world wide where millions of people have chronie HCV infection with a significant number of them go to cirrhosis and liver cancer, therefore the efforts to encourage HCV testing access to care and the improvement in HCV therapy have a positive impact on patients presenting for care.