• Eur. J. Intern. Med. · Aug 2023

    Multicenter Study Observational Study

    The impact of HCV chronic positivity and clearance on extrahepatic morbidity in thalassemia major patients: an observational study from MIOT Network.

    • Antonella Meloni, Laura Pistoia, Maria Rita Gamberini, Anna Spasiano, Liana Cuccia, Massimo Allò, Giuseppe Messina, Valerio Cecinati, Calogera Geraradi, Rosamaria Rosso, Cristina Vassalle, Riccardo Righi, Stefania Renne, Massimiliano Missere, Vincenzo Positano, Alessia Pepe, Filippo Cademartiri, and Paolo Ricchi.
    • Department of Radiology, Fondazione G. Monasterio CNR-Regione Toscana, Pisa, Italy; U.O.C. Bioingegneria, Fondazione G. Monasterio CNR-Regione Toscana, Pisa, Italy.
    • Eur. J. Intern. Med. 2023 Aug 1; 114: 9310093-100.

    BackgroundNo study has evaluated the effect of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection on the wide spectrum of complications affecting patients with thalassemia.ObjectivesThis multicenter study prospectively assessed the relationship of HCV infection with diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular complications in patients with thalassemia major (TM).MethodsWe considered 1057 TM patients (539 females; 29.79±10.08 years) enrolled in the MIOT Network and categorized into 4 groups: negative patients (group 1a, N=460), patients who spontaneously cleared the virus within 6months (group 1b, N=242), patients who eradicated the virus after the treatment with antiviral therapy (group 2, N=102), and patients with chronic HCV infection (group 3, N=254).ResultsGroup 1a and 1b were considered as a unique group (group 1). For both groups 1 and 3, a match 1:1 for age and sex with group 2 was performed. The effective study cohort consisted of 306 patients (three groups of 102 patients). During a mean follow-up of 67.93±39.20months, the group 3 experienced a significantly higher % increase/month in aspartate transaminase levels and left ventricular mass index than both groups 1 and 2. The changes in iron overload indexes were comparable among the three groups. Compared to group 1, the chronic HCV group showed a significantly higher risk of diabetes (hazard ratio-HR=5.33; p=0.043) and of cardiovascular diseases (HR=3.80; p=0.034).ConclusionChronic HCV infection is associated with a significant higher risk of diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular complications in TM patients and should be approached as a systemic disease in which extrahepatic complications increase the weight of its pathological burden.Copyright © 2023 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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