prevalence of diabetes mellitus in newly detected patients with hepatitis C

Introduction: Hepatitis C, in addition to liver disease, also causes extrahepatic manifestations in almost 35% of patients, resulting in a spectrum of autoimmune conditions. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes has been reported to be more in these patients. There is a compelling reason to believe this because studies have shown an increased prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). The study was conceived to find the prevalence of type 2 DM in HCV-positive patients and its relation to genotype. Materials and Methods: This was a hospital-based case-control study, conducted in the Department of Gastroenterology, Government Medical College Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. All patients with hepatitis C were enrolled and investigated as per the study design. According to the standard protocol already in vogue, the cases were thoroughly investigated which included all base line investigations, GTT, HbA1c and HOMA-IR. However, majority of the controls were subjected to GTT, HbA1c and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) only. Results: Among the cases, the mean age was 45.97 ± 11.982 years; 67.14% had genotype 3 and 32.85% had genotype 1. Cases and controls were compared on the basis of fasting blood sugar levels in three different ranges (≤100 mg%, 101-125 mg%, and ≥126 mg%) and a 2-h GTT at three different levels (