Hemostatic disorders in chronic hepatitis C virus infection

This study was conducted on 20 patients [12 males and 8 females], suffering from HCV infection and 10 healthy persons [males] as a control group and ages ranged between 20-55 years. The aim of this study was to assess the hemostatic disorders in HCV infection. All cases were subjected to full history, clinical examination, abdominal ultrasonography and laboratory investigations [CBC, HCV-RNA, PT, APTT and coagulation factors I, II, V, VII, VIII, IX, XI and XII]. The results of this study revealed the highest level of factors II, VIII and XII, the lowest level of factors V, VII and IX that are reflected to prolongation of PT and APTT in HCV patients in comparison to control group. From this study it was concluded that the reduction in the vitamin K dependent factors VII, IX and non-vitamin K dependent factor V in HCV infection patients pointed to cirrhosis and severity of hepatitis. The PT though is a good noninvasive technique to evaluate the liver state and function more than the transaminases and even albumin estimation

Study of interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 in Egyptian patients with chronic liver disease due to hepatitis C and bilharziasis

In this study, the serum levels of previous cytokines IL-6 and IL-8 were measured in 60 patients and 20 controls by ELISA technique. The patients were classified into group A [20] cases with type C-CAH, group B [20] cases with mixed pathology type C-CAH and bilharziasis which was subdivided into group B1 [ten cases with active bilharziasis] and group B2 [ten cases with inactive bilharziasis] and group C [20 cases with hepatic cirrhosis which was subdivided into group C1 and group C2]. The results have shown that there was a statistical difference of serum levels of IL-8 in group B1 in comparison with group B2, while there was a change in IL-6 in group B1 in comparison with group B2. Also, there was a statistical difference of serum level of IL-6 and IL-8 in group C1 in comparison with group C2. It was concluded that viral specific activated T-cell response occurred in type C- CAH with or without bilharziasis with subsequent release and elevation of proinflammatory and protective cytokines such as IL-6 and IL-8. Also, this increase of previous cytokines was related to the degree of HCV activity