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Steatosis is an independent risk factor for fibrosis in African-Americans with chronic HCV infection.
A study recently published in Digestive Disease Science found that hypertension, older age, obesity, and HIV are risk factors and that steatosis is an independent risk factor for liver fibrosis in African-Americans with chronic hepatitis C.
“Our retrospective study showed that there are risk factors, such as HIV coinfection for progression of liver fibrosis in the African-American population with chronic hepatitis C,” Ali Afsari, from the Department of Medicine and Cancer Research Center, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC, and colleagues write. They found steatosis to be “more prevalent in African-American female patients,” which is not in line with previous findings of greater disease burden in men and increased viral clearance in women.
“Inflammation was highly correlated with both fibrosis and steatosis,” the investigators wrote, emphasizing that “hepatic fibrosis is commonly preceded by chronic inflammation,” which “has been associated with progressive hepatic fibrosis and the development of cirrhosis.”
Read complete article here: http://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/hepatitis/risk-factors-for-liver-fibrosis-chronic-hcv/article/681429/