The association between Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and diabetes
mellitus remains undetermined and must be defined. So, the aim of this
work was to study serum insulin, C-peptide and amylase concentrations in
patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (CHCV) infection in a trial to
search for any pathogenic impact of HCV on both the endocrine and
exocrine functions of the pancreatic gland. This work was carried on 75
patients and 20 healthy subjects as controls. All our patients and controls
were males and their ages ranged from 40 to 64 years. Patients were
classified into diabetic, CHCV, and diabetic with CHCV groups. Each
group included 25 males.
The results of this work showed a significant increase of S. glucose
in diabetics, with and without CHCV (p < 0.001) while liver enzymes
(AST & ALT) were significantly increased in CHCV with and without
DM (p < 0.001) compared with the control group.
Additionally, diabetic group showed a significant increase of
S. insulin & C-peptide (p < 0.05) while CHCV group showed a significant
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increase of S. amylase (p < 0.001) compared with the control group.
Diabetics with CHCV showed a significant decrease of both serum insulin
& C-peptide (p < 0.05) but a significant increase of S. amylase (p < 0.001)
compared with the control group.
Comparative study of diabetic with CHCV group versus diabetic group
and CHCV group, the data showed a significant decrease of
S. insulin and C-peptide (P1 < 0.001 & p2 < 0,05), respectively while
S. amylase was significantly increased comparing it with DM group, (pi <
0.001) but non-significant change did not occur when compared with
CHCV group (P2 > 0.05).
We could conclude that; both the exocrine and endocrine parts of the
pancreas may be an extrahepatic target of HCV. The disturbances of both
insulin & C-peptide associated with CHCV could explain a direct link between
HCV and occurrence of diabetes mellitus. So, we recommend to
assay S. glucose, insulin & C - peptide levels in every patients with
CHCV to predict the incidence of diabetes mellitus. |
