Insulin resistance and chronic hepatitis C in non-diabetic patients

Resistência à insulina e hepatite crônica em pacientes não diabéticos

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Insulin resistance and chronic hepatitis C in non-diabetic patients

Resistência à insulina e hepatite crônica em pacientes não diabéticos

Viroj Wiwanitkit

Wiwanitkit House, Bangkhae, Bangkok Thailand 10160

^{Correspondence to}

The recent publication on Insulin resistance and chronic hepatitis C in non-diabetic patients was very interesting (1). Souza and cols. concluded that "Insulin resistance is often present in patients with chronic hepatitis C, and this parameter is associated with more advanced HCV-related hepatic fibrosis (1)." The finding in this study is concordant with the recent report by Itoh and cols. (2). It is believed that direct damage caused by the virus with proinflammatory cytokines will interfere with normal insulin signaling, and this further disturbs glucose metabolism (3). However, some issues on the present study (1) should be mentioned. First, the protocol in the present study cannot exclude the interference of other possible confounding diseases in the patients (such as HIV and other uncommon hepatitis virus infection). Second, this is only an observational study, hence, it is not reasonable to draw conclusions on any association (which would require an analytical study).

Disclosure: no potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Received on 17/Oct/2011

Accepted on 17/Nov/2011

• 1, Souza AF, Pace FH, Chebli JM, Ferreira LE. Insulin resistance in non-diabetic patients with chronic hepatitis C: what does it mean?. Arq Bras Endocrinol Metab. 2011;55(6):412-8.
• 2. Itoh Y, Nishimura T, Yamaguchi K, Yokomizo C, Fujii H, Minami M, et al. Hepatic steatosis in chronic hepatitis C patients infected with genotype 2 is associated with insulin resistance, hepatic fibrosis and affects cumulative positivity of serum hepatitis C virus RNA in peginterferon and ribavirin combination therapy. Hepatol Res. 2011;41(12):1145-52. doi: 10.1111/j.1872-034X.2011.00886.x. Epub 2011 Sep 26.
• 3.Gutiérrez-Grobe Y, Ponciano-Rodríguez G, Méndez-Sánchez N. Viral hepatitis infection and insulin resistance: a review of the pathophysiological mechanisms. Salud Publica Mex. 2011;53 Suppl 1:S46-51.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  05 Jan 2012
• Date of issue
  Dec 2011