Patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection face a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular death, subclinical carotid thickening and atherosclerosis, and cerebrocardiovascular events, especially when they also have diabetes and hypertension, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis of 22 studies published in the January issue of Gastroenterology.
“To our knowledge, our meta-analysis clearly highlights, for the first time, that HCV infection increases the risk of cardiovascular disease-related mortality,” wrote Dr. Salvatore Petta and his associates at the University of Palermo, Italy. “We [also] found a twofold higher risk of subclinical carotid plaques among HCV-infected individuals compared to uninfected controls, without significant heterogeneity among studies, as well as an increased risk of carotid thickening. We observed a slightly significant increase in cerebrocardiovascular events among HCV-infected patients, despite the high heterogeneity among studies that was mostly related to the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and hypertension.”
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Hepatitis C
A number of observational studies have reported cardiovascular outcomes in HCV-infected patients, but results have been “ambiguous,” Dr. Petta and his colleagues said. For their meta-analysis, they searched PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and reference lists of articles to identify studies published through July 2015 that either compared cardiovascular disease between HCV-infected and uninfected patients, or evaluated the prevalence of HCV infection among patients with cardiovascular disease. This literature search identified 12 case-control studies and 10 cohort studies. Outcome measures included carotid atherosclerosis (nine studies), intima media thickness (eight studies), coronary artery disease (seven studies), stroke (six studies), and cardiovascular mortality (three studies) (Gastroenterology. 2015 Sep 18. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2015.09.00).In the pooled analysis, the odds of cardiovascular death were 65% higher in HCV-infected patients, compared with uninfected individuals (95% confidence interval for this increase, 1.07%-2.56%). Compared with controls, HCV-infected patients also were at higher risk of carotid plaques (odds ratio, 2.27; 95% CI, 1.76-2.94), especially when they were smokers (P = .02). HCV infection also significantly increased the odds of carotid artery intima-media thickening (OR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.03-1.40), and cerebrocardiovascular events (OR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.10-1.55). However, subgroup analyses showed that HCV infection only increased the likelihood of cerebrocardiovascular events in populations with a more than 10% prevalence of diabetes or a more than 20% prevalence of hypertension (OR, 1.71; P less than .001 for both subgroup analyses).
Because the studies of cerebrocardiovascular events were heterogeneous, the researchers also stratified them by study design and by the average age of patients. Pooled odds ratios for the link between HCV infection and cerebrocardiovascular events remained significant at 1.21 for the cohort studies, 2.01 for the case-control studies, 2.46 among patients who averaged more than 50 years of age, and 1.35 among younger patients.
The Egger test for publication bias showed that the literature search was unlikely to have overlooked studies in terms of any of the outcome measures, the investigators noted. “From a clinical standpoint, the results of our meta-analysis suggest that HCV infection increases cardiovascular risk, particularly for individuals who already have cardiovascular risk factors, such as diabetes and hypertension,” they concluded. “Although effective and safe oral antiviral regimens are available, more information is needed to confirm whether anti-HCV medications will decrease cardiovascular risk, as suggested in some studies.”
The researchers reported having no funding sources or conflicts of interest.
Source: American Gastroenterological Association
