Influence of alcohol use, race, and viral coinfections on spontaneous HCV clearance in a US veteran population

• DOI: 10.1002/hep.1840400419
• Publication Date: 2007-03-11T03:09:54Z
• Authors: Barbara A. Piasecki; James D. Lewis; Rajender K. Reddy; Scarlett L. Bellamy; Steven B. Porter; Robert M. Weinrieb; Donald D. Stieritz; Kyong-Mi Chang
• Keywords: Hepatitis C; Clearance rate; Univariate analysis

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is spontaneously cleared in 15% to 45% of individuals during primary infection. To define the role alcohol, race, and HBV or HIV coinfections natural HCV clearance, we examined these parameters 203 HCV-recovered subjects (HCV Ab +/RNA - without prior antiviral therapy) 293 chronically HCV-infected patients +). Subjects were identified from 1,454 antibody-seropositive US veterans tested for RNA between January 2000 July 2002 at Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In univariate analysis, alcohol use disorder (odds ratio [OR] 0.52; 95% CI, 0.31-0.85; P = .006) black race (OR 0.65; 0.44-0.96; .024) both associated with decreased likelihood spontaneous clearance. multivariate analyses adjusting infection, age, disorder, remained strongly reduced clearance 0.49; 0.30-0.81; 0.005). contrast, association viral was no longer statistically significant (adjusted OR 0.72; 0.48-1.09; .125). coinfection negatively 0.37; 0.16-0.83; .016), while positively (unadjusted 5.0; 1.26-28.6; .008). conclusion, may be influenced by coinfections. (Hepatology 2004;40:892-899).