SUNDAY, Jan. 7, 2007 (HealthDay News) -- White hepatitis C patients are more likely to have a complication known as steatosis than black patients, says a new study.
Hepatic steatosis, or fat in the liver, is a condition common among people with the hepatitis C virus. It indicates more advanced disease.
In a study published in the January issue of Hepatology, researchers, led by Hari Conjeevaram of the Division of Gastroenterology at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, set out to investigate racial differences in steatosis in people with the hepatitis C virus, genotype I.
The study included 194 black patients and 205 white patients with hepatitis C. The participants were involved in a study of a treatment for hepatitis C.
Sixty-one percent of the black patients and 65 percent of the white patients had hepatic steatosis.
After adjusting for other factors associated with steatosis, including body mass index and insulin resistance, the researchers found that blacks were approximately half as likely as whites to have hepatic steatosis.
Both insulin resistance and fibrosis were important in how responsive the patients were to hepatitis C treatment, while obesity and steatosis were less important, the researchers said.
The study authors concluded that "the importance of these findings is that insulin resistance is a potentially modifiable factor, so that responses to antiviral therapy in hepatitis C may be improved by modulation of insulin signaling and improvements in insulin resistance and glucose control."
More information
The National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse has more about hepatitis C.
