الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Both hepatitis C virus infection and diabetes mellitus are chronic conditions with significant morbidity and mortality. HCV mainly affects the liver, but also several tissues outside the liver have been reported to be involved by autoimmune and non-autoimmune mechanisms, resulting in a wide spectrum of extrahepatic manifestations. During the last decade, it has been shown that diabetes is one of these extrahepatic conditions attributable to HCV infection. Epidemiologically, there is a relationship between DM and chronic HCV infection. Several cross-sectional studies have found a higher prevalence of diabetes in HCV infected patients. In addition a significantly higher prevalence of HCV antibodies found in diabetic patients. It is also found that there is increased prevalence of diabetes among persons with chronic HCV infection as compared with those with HBV and cholestatic liver disease. This support the hypothesis that there is a link between HCV and diabetes Several potential mechanisms have been suggested to explain this relation, the most important of which seems to be insulin resistance. The other possible mechanisms are iron overload, direct toxic effect of the virus, abnormalities in glucose tolerance associated with interferon therapy, and abnormalities in glucose metabolism resulting from liver disease |