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©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 28, 2016; 22(4): 1405-1410
Published online Jan 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i4.1405
Published online Jan 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i4.1405
Rheumatic manifestations of hepatitis C virus chronic infection: Indications for a correct diagnosis
Carlo Palazzi, Salvatore D’Angelo, Michele Gilio, Ignazio Olivieri, Rheumatology Department of Basilicata, San Carlo Hospital, Potenza and Madonna delle Grazie Hospital, 75100 Matera, Italy
Emilio D’Amico, Division of Internal Medicine, San Massimo Hospital, 86027 Penne, Italy
Author contributions: All authors have contributed to conceive and design this review, to analyze the literature and revise the paper; and Palazzi C drafted the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors have no financial interests which could create a potential conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest with regard to the work.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Carlo Palazzi, MD, Senior Investigator, Rheumatology Department of Basilicata, San Carlo Hospital, Potenza and Madonna delle Grazie Hospital, C.da Cattedra Ambulante, 75100 Matera, Italy. kaps57@virgilio.it
Telephone: +39-835-253807 Fax: +39-971-983036
Received: May 29, 2015
Peer-review started: June 4, 2015
First decision: September 11, 2015
Revised: November 17, 2015
Accepted: December 12, 2015
Article in press: December 14, 2015
Published online: January 28, 2016
Peer-review started: June 4, 2015
First decision: September 11, 2015
Revised: November 17, 2015
Accepted: December 12, 2015
Article in press: December 14, 2015
Published online: January 28, 2016
Core Tip
Core tip: As a consequence of its lymphotropic nature, hepatitis C virus (HCV) can trigger and sustain a clonal B-cell expansion which causes a wide spectrum of autoimmune/lymphoproliferative disorders, through a multistep process. These extrahepatic manifestations become clinically manifest in 40%-70% of the patients and they can be frequently classified among the rheumatic ones. Furthermore, HCV can promote the production of several autoantibodies complicating the differential diagnosis between primitive and HCV-related rheumatic disorders.