Serum complement C4 in chronic hepatitis C: correlation with histopathologic findings and disease activity.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Hepatitis C virus leads to chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular cancer. Viral markers and other laboratory tests used in the diagnosis and follow-up of chronic hepatitis C do not correlate well with disease activity and liver histopathology. Therefore, alternative tests that indicate disease activity and relate with liver biopsy findings are needed. We aimed to investigate the relationship between serum complement levels and biopsy findings in patients with chronic hepatitis C. METHODS One hundred cases (70 patients, 30 healthy controls) were included in the study. Patients were divided into two groups: chronic hepatitis C patients with high transaminase levels were evaluated as the first group and patients with normal transaminase levels as the second group. Patients with a high transaminase level were biopsied and activity scores were evaluated against complement C3c and C4 levels. In addition, demographic data and laboratory tests were evaluated. Patients with chronic hepatitis C without proteinuria, acute phase response, cirrhosis, or coinfection with another hepatitis virus were included in the prospective study. RESULTS Serum complement C3c (p<0.01) and C4 (p<0.01) levels were significantly lower in the first group than the second group. Serum complement C3c levels did not correlate with laboratory tests, hepatitis C virus-RNA levels, histological activity index, or fibrosis scores in patients with high transaminase levels, whereas complement C4 levels showed significant correlation with alanine aminotransferase (r: -0.368, p: 0.001) and histological activity index (r: -0.639, p: 0.001). We could not find any relation between serum complement C4 level and fibrosis. CONCLUSIONS Serum complement C4 levels correlate with the histological activity index of the Knodell scoring system.