Research Article Prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Hepatitis C Virus Infected Population: A Southeast Asian Study

Copyright © 2013 Muhammad Sadik Memon et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Purpose. The study was aimed to investigate the frequency of diabetes mellitus type 2 in patients infected with chronic hepatitis C virus and its association with cirrhosis. Patients and Methods. This prospective case series was conducted at Section of Gastroenterology andHepatology, Isra University Hospital, Hyderabad, over a period of 4months from June 2009 to October 2009. Hepatitis C virus seropositive patients who were older than 18 years, diabetic or nondiabetic, were included. Basic demographic data collected by questionnaire and laboratory investigations including fasting blood glucose levels, serum cholesterol, and liver function tests were done. A logistic regression model was used to explore the association between diabetic and nondiabetic HCV seropositives and type 2 diabetesmellituswith cirrhosis.Results. A total of 361 patientswith hepatitis Cwere analyzed; the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in HCV patients was 31.5%. Out of the total number of the participants, 58.4 % (n = 211) were cirrhotics, while 41.6 % (n = 150) were noncirrhotic HCV seropositives. In multivariate analysis, cirrhotic patients appeared significantly more likely (P = 0.01) to be diabetic as compared with noncirrhotic patients (OR = 2.005, 95 % CI: 1.15, 3.43). Conclusion. Advancing age, increased weight, and HCV genotype 3 are independent predictors of type 2 diabetes in HCV seropositive patients, and there is a statistically significant association of cirrhosis observed with type 2 diabetes mellitus. 1