Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in patients with cardiomyopathy.

Chronic hepatitis C can be associated with extrahepatic manifestations; thus, we explored the association of this viral infection with dilated cardiomyopathy in a group of sixty-three patients with a cardiac ejection fraction of less than 40% determined by an echocardiogram in a prospective study. Two of the forty-one patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy (4.8%) had serum antibodies to the hepatitis C virus and one of those had hepatitis C virus RNA (2.4%) in serum, consistent with chronic hepatitis C. One of the 22 patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy (4.5%) had serum antibodies to the hepatitis C virus but the hepatitis C virus RNA was not detected in their serum, consistent with prior infection but not chronic hepatitis C. In this study, chronic hepatitis C was not prevalent in the group of patients, although the only patient with chronic hepatitis C had non-ischemic cardiomyopathy. As a genetic predisposition to develop cardiomyopathy secondary to chronic hepatitis C has been suggested to be relevant in this type of complication, studies that include different racial and ethnic groups are warranted, as treatment of the hepatitis may lead to resolution of the cardiomyopathy.