Hepatitis C Viral (HCV) Infection as a novel risk factor for severe coronary artery disease: A Prospective Angiographic Study

The link between coronary artery disease (CHD) and chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been shown in many studies. However, the effect of chronic HCV infection on the extent of coronary artery disease (CAD) has not been determined so; the aim of the present study is to determine the effect of HCV infection on the severity and the pattern of CAD in Egyptian patients. This study group included two groups of patients with angiographically documented CAD; 25 HCV seropositive patients as test group and another 25 HCV seronegative patients as control group. Both groups were comparable as regard, age, sex, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus, and smoking. A detailed qualitative coronary angiographic analysis and SYNTAX score were used to assess the extent and severity of CAD. The presence of total occlusion was significantly higher in the HCV seropositive group (p