Prevalence of diabetes mellitus type II in patients with hepatitis C and association with other risk factors

A higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) has been documented in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of coinfection of HCV infection with diabetes mellitus with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and hypertension. The study was conducted at Chemical Pathology Laboratory at Malik Haider Hospital (MHH) and Aziz BhattiShaheed Hospital (District Head Quarter) Gujrat. For this purpose a serum of 250 patients with chronic viral hepatitis was screened. Liver function test (LFT) profile viz., alkaline phosphatase (AP). Alanine amino tranferase (ALT) and bilirubin levels were also determined. Further information like age, sex, marital status, smoker, non-smoker, hypertension, hepatitis B (HBV) co-infection and diabetes were recorded on prescribed performa. HCV was found to be more prevalent in women (60.4%) than in men (39.6%) and the highest incidence of HCV was recorded in age group 24-34 years (28%). Prevalence of diabetes was calculated to be 34.80%, prevalence in women was calculated to be 31.20% and in males 40.40%.Co-relation of HCV and DM was found to be 0.77. The percentage of co-infection with HBV was calculated to be 12.80%and with hypertension was found to be 36.40%.All these factors contribute to the development of diabetes but only one of them may be responsible for its major cause.