Cryoglobulinemia in patients with hepatitis C

Introduction: Cryoglobulinemia is a kind of immunoglobuline that form in various conditions. These imunoglobulines, precipitate in cold environment and restore to soluble state upon rewarming. Nowadays, strong association between cryoglobulines and hepatitis C has been proposed. Methods: This is a descriptive-analytic study in which we included all documented cases of hepatitis C infection who referred to Shahid Sadoughi Hospital from May 2004 to December 2005. Their sera was assessed for cryoglobulines. Results were analyzed by SPSS software and using Chi-square and t-test. Results: Fifty patients entered the study while 8 persons (15%) were positive for cryoglobulines. No statistically significant correlation was shown between positive cryoglobulinemia and age, sex, mode of acquiring infection, liver enzyme titer, HBs antigen and anti-HIV antibody. Conclusion: Regarding the clinical significance of cryoglobolinemia in developing different clinical syndromes, it is recommended to evaluate cryoglobulines in high risk groups, especially patients with hepatitis C