Natural history of chronic hepatitis C in patients on hemodialysis: Case control study with 4-23 years of follow-up

Table 1 Clinical evaluation of dialysis (case) and control pa-tients in recent 4 years or last 4 years before liver unrelated death

Group		Number	Disease activities
			Asymptomatic	Low	High
	Follow-up: <15 yr
Case	Male	14(5)	14(5)	0	0b
	Female	11(10)	11(10)	0	0d
Control	Male	28(0)	0	8(0)	20b(0)
	Female	22(0)	3(0)	5(0)	14d(0)
	Follow-up: 10-15 yr
Case	Male	70(15)	58(14)	7(1)	5b(0)
	Female	24(0)	23(10)	0	1d(0)
Control	Male	140(0)	16(0)	29(0)	95b(0)
	Female	48(0)	10(0)	24(0)	14d(0)
	Follow-up: 4-10 yr
Case	Male	53(5)	41(5)	7(0)	5b(0)
	Female	17(9)	17(9)	0	0d
Control	Male	106(0)	24(0)	23(0)	59b(0)
	Female	34(0)	7(0)	13(0)	14d(0)

( ): HCV RNA, PCR negative or below quantifiable level by Amplicor

^bP < 0.001,

^dP < 0.001 by χ² test.

Table 2 Serum HCV RNA in dialysis patients in the study

Range(KIU/mL)	Group
	Asymptomatic	Low activities	High activities
< 0.5	53	2	0
0.6-100	32	2	1
101-400	48	4	1
401->8501	21	6	9
Total	154	14	11

^lIncludes values above 1 000 by Amplicor Version I. Values by branched DNA method were converted to Amplicor values. P < 0.001 by χ² test.

Table 3 Comparison of the first and second measurements of HCV RNA at intervals longer than 2 years in dialysis patients

Change	Group
	Asymptomatic	Lowactivities	Highactivities
Unchanged (change < 50%)	44	1	2
Increased (+ >50%)	25	3	2
Decreased (- >50%)	36	5	2
Total	105	9	6

Table 4 Serum 7S fragment of type IV collagen in dialysis patients

Group	Number of patients	7S IV collagen (ng/mL)
Asymptomatic	118	5.05 ± 1.59ac
Low activities	14	6.21 ± 1.94a
High activities	11	6.92 ± 2.63c
Total	143	5.59

^aP < 0.05,

^cP < 0.05 by ANOVA.