IRON OVERLOAD IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC HEPATITIS-C - A CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL STUDY

Recent studies suggest that increased hepatic iron may impair the resp onse to interferon therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C. We re viewed the records and liver biopsies of 72 patients with chronic hepa titis C to determine the prevalence of iron overload and to evaluate w hether there is a correlation between serum and hepatic iron concentra tions and activity of liver disease. Patients with other causes of liv er disease or iron overload were excluded. Necroinflammatory activity and fibrosis were evaluated using modified Knodell score. Hepatic iron was assessed using Brissot's grading system. Increased serum iron and ferritin levels were found in 29% and 43% patients, respectively. Hep atic iron grades 0, I, II, Ill, and TV were present in 37%, 35%, 25%, 3%, and 0% of patients, respectively. A significant correlation was fo und between hepatic iron grade and serum ferritin (P = .0001). There w as no correlation between hepatic iron grade and histological activity index or fibrosis score. In summary, we found a high proportion of pa tients with chronic hepatitis C had mild to moderate increase in hepat ic iron content even when patients with alcoholism and recurrent trans fusions were excluded. However, very few patients had severely increas ed iron load. Copyright (C) 1996 by W.B. Saunders Company