Hepatitis C

The review explored the global epidemiology of HCV in patients on dialysis, providing novel estimations of its prevalence and case fatality rate in this patient population.

Findings suggest the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma may persist in patients with HCV, even after achieving SVR with direct-acting antiviral therapy.

HCV seroprevalence and antigen positivity were both low, suggesting universal birth cohort screening may not be necessary or cost-effective.

Results of the systematic review and meta-analysis support the use of pan-genotypic DAA regimens for the treatment of chronic HCV in adolescents and children ≥ 3 years of age.

The editorial team’s monthly recap of the top news in hepatology features research emphasizing women’s health in liver disease, a look at some less-recognized health benefits associated with achieving SVR, and promising approaches for preventing and treating hepatic conditions.

Study results called attention to the negative impact of living in a rural residence and a highly dependent neighborhood on HCV screening by 2 years of age in children born to HCV RNA positive mothers.

Results showed a 12% incidence of HCV in pregnancy with a preterm birth rate nearly double the national average, although no statistically significant difference in preterm birth rates was observed between HCV-positive and HCV-negative patients.

Test your knowledge with this clinician quiz! In this quiz, we test your knowledge of updates in the management of hepatitis C virus based on the AASLD/IDSA 2023 guidance update.

Results highlight the benefit of achieving sustained virological response with DAAs for decreasing patients’ risk of carotid atherosclerosis and peripheral artery disease, especially among those with severe fibrosis.

Sustained virologic response and several sociodemographic factors were found to be significantly associated with long-term improvements in health-related quality of life in patients with HCV.

The XGBoost machine learning model outperformed other AI and logistic regression models for predicting DAA failure, with an AUROC of 1.000 in the training dataset and 0.803 in the validation dataset.

Patients in the integrated and standard care treatment arms reported similar SCL-10 scores indicative of psychological stress and symptom burden, both at baseline and after the completion of DAA treatment.

Although the overall response rate among the cohort was 96.4%, this figure dropped as low as 66.7% when accounting for male gender, GT3 infection, cirrhosis, obesity, and non-response to previous therapy.

Response to direct-acting antiviral therapy was similar between patients with and without HBV coinfection, with most patients completing the planned course of treatment and achieving SVR, even in the case of HBV reactivation.

Investigators examined data from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factors study 2019 to describe the global, regional, and national burden of liver cancer due to hepatitis C since 1990.

Patients with lean NAFLD had fewer metabolic comorbidities but maintained similar risk of NASH, cirrhosis, nonliver cancer, and mortality compared to their overweight and obese counterparts.

IVF treatment and pregnancy outcomes were not significantly different between patients with and without liver disease who received assisted reproductive technology treatment.

Statistically significant reductions in serum ferritin, transferrin saturation index, and iron levels were observed after treatment, with hyperferritinemia eradicated in nearly all patients treated with DAAs achieving SVR.

More than half of study participants were enrolled in the patient portal and 98% were classified as passive users, but only moderately active use of the patient portal was associated with a reduced risk of readmission.

Although no differences were observed in the safety and efficacy of FDA-approved combination DAA therapies, female participants reported numerically more adverse events than male participants.

Results from the systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrated the positive effect of DAA therapy on overall survival, HCC-free survival, and liver function among patients with HCV decompensated cirrhosis compared to a non-DAA control group.

Patients with HCV who underwent automated routine screening and the addition of a clinical pharmacist to the interdisciplinary patient care model completed treatment and achieved SVR at a greater rate than patients who were not exposed to the study intervention.

Following years of concerns about the stigmatization and inaccurate etiology of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease nomenclature, 2023 finally saw revised terminology for liver disease with the implementation of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.

A cohort of patients with end-stage renal disease on maintenance hemodialysis saw a 7% reduction in HCV-viremic rate and primary infection rates as low as 0.01% following implementation of the link-to-treat program.

Just 8.5% of eligible patients were screened for hepatitis C - among them, 5.9% tested positive for HCV antibody and 3.0% had an active infection.