OBJECTIVES: was to determine the frequency of fatty liver with CHC and to evaluate the effect of fatty liver on the end treatment virologic response of combined antiviral therapy of CHC.
METHODOLOGY: This study was conducted in Medical “B” Unit of Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar from January 2011 to December 2011. In this study 202 PCR proven CHC patients were included after fulfilling inclusion criteria. All patients underwent ultrasonography of the liver. Fatty liver was diagnosed in the presence of 2 of the 3 following criteria: increased hepatic echogenicity as compared to spleen or kidney, blurring of liver vasculature and deep attenuation of ultrasonographic signal. Data was entered in SPSS version 16 and “p” value< 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
RESULTS: Of 202 patients 90 (44.6 %) were male and 112 (55.4 %) were female. Mean age of the patients in years was 33 + 9.929 SD. The common age group was 20-30 years (96 cases). Amongst 202 patients 49 (24.3%) were diagnosed with fatty liver disease and 153 (75.7 %) patients were not. The overall end treatment virologic response was achieved in 142 patients (70.30%) while 60 patients (29.76%) were non-responders. Out of 49 patients with fatty liver, 23 patients had undetectable HCV-RNA at the end of treatment and 26 were non-responders. End treatment virologic response was significantly higher (77.8%) in patients with not fatty liver compared with 46.9 % having fatty liver.
CONCLUSION: Fatty liver affects the prognosis in patients who have associated CHC and getting anti-viral therapy.
Key words: Chronic hepatitis C, fatty liver, NAFLD, interferon.
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