Ann Clin Hepatol | Volume 2, Issue 1 | Case Report | Open Access
Kazuo Okumoto*, Takafumi Saito, Taketo Nishina, Kei Mizuno, Kyoko Tomita, Hiroaki Haga and Yoshiyuki Ueno
Department of Gastroenterology, Yamagata University School of Medicine, Japan
*Correspondance to: Kazuo Okumoto
Fulltext PDFMany patients with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection show progression to chronic hepatitis. About 30% of HCV infected individuals are known to show natural resolution in the acute phase of infection. However, the long-term prognosis after HCV eradication is unknown. We show the outcomes and causes of death of HCV-infected patients. The subjects were 1115 individuals who tested positive for anti-HCV antibody between 1991 and 2016. 346 patients were HCV RNA-negative and 721 were positive. The average age at death for hepatitis C-infected individuals was 79.5 ± 8.1 years. The average age at death among individuals who showed spontaneous resolution of hepatitis C was 79.4 ± 9.2 years. In this group, the causes of death included liver-related disease (6%; 65.3 ± 9.6 years), cancers other than natural resolution (24.7%; 77.4 ± 7.5 years), pneumonia (20.3%; 84.2 ± 5.9 years), cerebrovascular disease (13.7%; 76.8 ± 11.2 years), heart disease (11.5%; 78.2 ± 9.1 years), renal disease (1.1%; 79.5 ± 6.4 years old), and others (22.5%; 82.7 ± 7.9 years). Patients with HCC died at a relatively young age (65.3 ± 9.6 years) compared with the others.The results of the present study suggest that even if the hepatitis C virus has been undetectable for a long period of time, the incidence of liver cancer is nevertheless higher than usual, and therefore the reasons for this require further investigation.
Hepatitis C virus; Natural resolution; Direct acting antivirals; Hepato cellular carcinoma
Okumoto K, Saito T, Nishina T, Mizuno K, Tomita K, Haga H, et al. Prognosis and Causes of Death in Individuals with Hepatitis C. Ann Clin Hepatol. 2018; 2(1): 1006.