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Introduction Hepatic steatosis is common in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, and its occurrence may be related to both host and viral factors. Relationship between improvement in steatosis and response to anti-viral treatment remains unclear. This study assessed the factors associated with steatosis in patients infected with genotype 4 HCV, and to correlate degree of changes in steatosis with host factors and response to treatment. Methods Records of 175 patients with chronic genotype 4 HCV infection, who had received interferon and ribavirin combination therapy, were reviewed retrospectively to extract data on body mass index (BMI), presence of diabetes mellitus, and liver histology findings. Paired BMI data and liver biopsies (pre- and 24-weeks post-treatment) were available in 86 patients. Baseline steatosis and its changes (before and after treatment) were the dependent variables in a univariate and multivariate analyses. Results Steatosis was found in 88/175 (50.3%) of baseline biopsies. Its presence was related to baseline BMI (r=0.33, P<0.01), but not with viral load, or grade of liver inflammation or fibrosis. On follow up, improvement in steatosis was significantly associated with degree of weight loss but not with response to anti-viral treatment. Conclusion Steatosis is common in genotype 4 HCV infection, and its presence appears to be related to high BMI, but not to viral load or degree of liver injury.
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Ultrasonography can reveal most of the manifestations of portal hypertension complicating hepatosplenic, schistosomiasis. However, direct demonstration of gastroesophageal varices by ultrasonography is still very difficult. An attempt was done to correlate sonographic features of portal hypertension with the degree of fibrosis to screen patients having varices and predicting their chance of bleeding. The results obtained were found to be consistent with the esophagogastric endoscopy and with history of hematemesis. Four parameters were used, size of spleen, degree of periportal fibrosis, presence of collaterals and portal vein diameter. A pilot field survey was also done adopting the same principle