Factors associated with severity of hepatic fibrosis in people with chronic hepatitis C infection

Abstract

Objective: To determine factors associated with hepatic fibrosis development in people with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Methods: As a requirement for access to interferon therapy through the S100 scheme in Australia, individual pretreatment demographic and clinical information was collected on 2986 patients from 61 hospital-based liver clinics from 1 October 1994 through 31 December 1996. Patients with both a hepatic fibrosis score and an estimated duration of HCV infection (910) were divided into 540 with no or minimal hepatic fibrosis (stage 0-1) and 370 with moderate to severe hepatic fibrosis (stage 2-3). Seven factors were examined: age at HCV infection, sex, ethnicity, s..