ABSTRACT
Objective: This study aims to estimate the
prevalence of
insulin resistance (IR) among
chronic hepatitis C (CHC)
patients and their related
laboratory and
demographic data . Subjects and
methods: In this study, non-diabetic CHC
patients referred to Viral
Hepatitis Ambulatories from Rio de Janeiro (
Brazil ) donated
blood samples.
Insulin was measured using a
chemiluminescence immunoassay . IR was determined by HOMA-IR, where HOMA-IR > 2 was defined as IR.
Results: A total of 214 CHC
patients were recruited (123
females aged 53.6 years ± 10.9 years). IR was present in 133
patients (62.1%) and was associated in bivariate
analysis to higher mean values of age (p = 0.040),
triglycerides (p = 0.032),
glucose (p = 0.000),
insulin (p = 0.000),
waist circumference (p = 0.001), and
body mass index (p = 0.007); however, none of these variables were significant in the
multivariate analysis .
Conclusions: The high
prevalence of IR was observed among CHC
patients , and there was no difference in clinical or
laboratory parameters when both groups were compared in the
multivariate analysis . This high IR
prevalence could
lead to a high
risk for development of
cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders.