Lipid profile among chronic hepatitis C Egyptian patients and its levels pre and post treatment

Background: Hepatitis C is a common infection in the Egyptian population, specially genotype 4 .It is well recognized in many studies that hepatitis C chronic infection is associated with hypolipidemia ,so in our study we compare the lipid profile between 150 patients with chronic hepatitis C and 150 normal persons with comparable age, sex and body mass index (BMI). The fasting cholesterol ,low density lipoprotein(LDL),high density lipoprotein(HDL),and triglyceride were compared .Then 36 patients of them received treatment in the form of pegylated interferon and ribavirin and then the patients who achieved viral clearance were reevaluated as regard the lipid profile versus the patients who did not achieve viral clearance and the relpsers. In our study we found that patients with chronic hepatitis C had significant lower LDL, cholesterol, and triglycerides than normal persons with comparable age, sex and BMI .The treated patients with sustained virological response showed increased LDL, cholesterol, and triglycerides from baseline compared to patients without viral clearance and even 2of them had increased LDL more than 130 mg/dl and had increased in cholesterol level more than 200 mg/dl which necessate treatment for dyslipidemia in order to prevent the risk of coronary heart disease. Conclusion : patients with chronic hepatitis C had low levels of LDL, cholesterol, and triglycerides than non infected persons and after viral clearance a significant number of patients showed LDL, cholesterol, and triglycerides rebound even to levels may be associated with increased risk for coronary heart disease, so lipids should be carefully followed up after successful clearance of hepatitis C infection. [Nature and Science 2010;8(7):83-89]. (ISSN: 1545-0740).