Sustained Virological Response Correlates With Reduction in the
Incidence of Glucose Abnormalities in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C
Virus Infection.

OBJECTIVE: There is evidence to suggest that hepatitis C virus (HCV)
infection is a high-risk condition for developing type 2 diabetes.
However, there are no interventional studies that confirm that HCV
infection causes diabetes. The main aim of this study was to compare the
incidence of glucose abnormalities (diabetes plus impaired fasting
glucose) between HCV-infected patients with or without sustained
virological response (SVR) after antiviral therapy. [...] RESULTS:
During follow-up, 14 of 96 (14.6%) patients with SVR and 47 of 138
(34.1%) nonsustained responders developed glucose abnormalities (P =
0.001). Patients with SVR did not develop diabetes during follow-up,
whereas nine cases of diabetes were detected in nonsustained responders
(P = 0.007). After adjustment for the recognized predictors of type 2
diabetes, the hazard ratio for glucose abnormalities in patients with
SVR was 0.48 (95% CI [0.24-0.98], P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Our results
provide evidence that eradication of HCV infection significantly reduces
the incidence of glucose abnormalities in chronic hepatitis C patients.
In addition, this study supports the concept that HCV infection causes
type 2 diabetes.

Full text at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dop
t=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17065685&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum
Thomas