Seroprevalence of Hepatitis B and C in Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Chen, Hua-Fen; Li, Chung-Yi; Chen, Peter; See, Ting-Ting; Lee, Hsin-Yu

doi:10.1016/S1726-4901(09)70195-9

« Previous Next »Journal of the Chinese Medical Association
Volume 69, Issue 4 , Pages 146-152, April 2006

Seroprevalence of Hepatitis B and C in Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Hua-Fen Chen
- Division of Endocrinology, Department of Internal Medicine, Far-Eastern Memorial Hospital, Panchiao, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
- Department of Public Health, College of Medicine, Fu Jen Catholic University, Hsinchuang, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Chung-Yi Li
- Department of Public Health, College of Medicine, Fu Jen Catholic University, Hsinchuang, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Peter Chen
- Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Far-Eastern Memorial Hospital, Panchiao, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Ting-Ting See
- Division of Endocrinology, Department of Internal Medicine, Far-Eastern Memorial Hospital, Panchiao, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Hsin-Yu Lee
- Division of Endocrinology, Department of Internal Medicine, Far-Eastern Memorial Hospital, Panchiao, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
- Correspondence to: Dr. Hsin-Yu Lee, Division of Endocrinology, Department of Internal Medicine, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, 21, Section 2, Nan-Ya South Road, Panchiao 220, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Received 2 August 2005; accepted 2 November 2005.

Background

Many reports in the literature suggest that chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with diabetes, but the results are conflicting. The aim of our study was to investigate the seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and HCV infections in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients.

Methods

We collected 820 consecutive type 2 diabetic patients attending 2 of 5 outpatient endocrinology clinics in Far Eastern Memorial Hospital from March to July 2003. The control group consisted of 905 subjects who came for medical check-ups at the Family Medicine Department. We determined hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-HCV in both groups, using third-generation microparticle enzyme immunoassay.

Results

No significant difference was found between type 2 DM patients and the control group for seropositivity of HBsAg (13.5% versus 12.4%; odds ratio [OR] = 1.09; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.77–1.55; p = 0.441), but anti-HCV seropositivity was detected in 6.8% of patients and 2.6% of the control subjects (OR = 2.87; 95% CI: 1.51–5.46; p < 0.001). In anti-HCV-positive DM patients, abnormal alanine aminotransferase was observed in 61.8%, compared with only 34.2% of anti-HCV-negative DM patients (p < 0.001). We did not observe any difference in risk factors for HCV infection between anti-HCV-positive and -negative DM patients.