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Chronic fatigue, mood alterations and cognitive impairment are frequent accessory symptoms of HCV-infection. Fatigue and mood alterations have also been observed in autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), but not in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infection, thus indicating an autoimmune response as possible cause of HCV-infection associated encephalopathy.
Data, however, are sparse. This study aims to prove that HCV patients feature similar to those with autoimmune liver disease but contrary to HBV patients regarding neuropsychiatric symptoms.
Fatigue, anxiety and depression scores were significantly increased, and the SF-36 mental score significantly decreased in all patient groups compared to controls. Fatigue was significantly more pronounced in HCV than in HBV patients.
HCV patients scored significantly worse than HBV patients but not AIH and PBC patients in the SF-36. HCV, AIH and PBC but not HBV patients did significantly worse than controls in word learning. Recognition of words was impaired in HCV, AIH and PBC patients and recognition of figures in HCV patients, exclusively. HCV patients did also worse than controls and HBV patients concerning alertness and working memory.
The neuropsychiatric profiles of HCV patients are similar to those of AIH and PBC patients but differ from those of HBV patients, suggesting an autoimmune response as a possible cause for these differences.
Source: J Viral Hepat. 2018 Aug 18. doi: 10.1111/jvh.12979. [Epub ahead of print]