Prevalence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C Virus

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection vesting to a tertiary care hospital.

Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at department of Gastroenterology, Asian Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, Pakistan, from June 2020 to January 2021. Patients with age between 30 to 70 years with chronic hepatitis-C of either gender were included. Ultrasound, CT of liver and alpha fetoprotein levels were done to assess hepatocellular carcinoma. All the collected data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 23.

Results: Mean of age was 43.5±8.5 years, mean body mass index (BMI) was 26.7±5.2 kg/m² and males were in majority. Overall average duration of chronic liver disease was 12.5±2.3 years. Out of 279 patients, 207 (74.1%) were male while 72 (25.9%) were female. Hepatocellular carcinoma was found to be in 18 (6.5%) patients. The prevalence of HCC was higher among patients aged >40 years (4.7% vs 1.8%), in males compared to females (5.4% vs 1.1%) and BMI >24 kg/m² (4.3% vs 2.2%), though the findings were statistically insignificant (p >0.05), while disease duration >10 years showed a significant association with HCC (p=0.018).

Conclusion: The prevalence of hepatocellular carcinoma was observed to be 6.5% among patients with chronic HCV infection, with the prolonged duration and severity of disease as the significant factor for development of HCC.