Could Hepatitis C Damage Your Kidneys as Well?

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In spite of its name, the disease hepatitis C (“hepatitis” indicating inflammation of the liver), is a multiorgan disease affecting organs beyond the liver. Chronic hepatitis C virus has the potential to affect wide-ranging organ systems, including the kidneys, the skin, the hematological system, and even cause autoimmune disease and diabetes. When it comes to the kidneys, hepatitis C tends to affect the “filter” of the kidneys, (called the “glomerulus”) in various ways, creating different disease processes.

This realization that hepatitis C can have a major impact on kidney function and cause kidney disease is an essential take-home message, both for the physician managing the hepatitis C disease process, as well as for patients. It tells us that patients with hepatitis C should be evaluated for problems that might suggest kidney disease. Conversely, patients presenting to a nephrologist with certain signs or symptoms might need to be worked up for hepatitis C.

How Does Hepatitis C Damage the Kidneys?

One frequent explanation for why hepatitis C disease affects the kidneys is the association between the hepatitis C virus and its tendency to incite inflammation in our blood vessels (something called “vasculitis”). This inflammation will frequently involve the kidney and has the potential to set off inflammatory reactions in the kidney’s filter.

In other words, in most cases, it’s not a direct infection of hepatitis C that hurts kidney function, but in fact the body’s response to hepatitis C that does the damage.

Kidney function can then become “collateral damage” of a battle that rages between the hepatitis C virus and our body’s immune system, with afflicted patients left with varying degrees of kidney disease.