Table 1.
Characteristics of included patients
| Characteristics | |
| Number of patients | 24 |
| Liver Disease | |
| HCV | 19 (79%) |
| HCV-HIV | 2 (8%) |
| Alcohol | 3 (13%) |
| Duration of liver disease (years) – mean (sd) | 21 (4) |
| Age at biopsy (years) – mean (sd) | 49 (11) |
| Age at serum sample (years) – mean (sd) | 52 (11) |
| Duration between biopsy and serum sample (years) – mean (sd) | 2.7 (1.4) |
| Male (%) | 16 (67%) |
| Female (%) | 8 (33%) |
| Mode of HCV infection | |
| Transfusion (%) | 6 (29%) |
| IV drug use | 9 (42%) |
| Unknown | 6 (29%) |
| HCV Genotype | |
| 3 | 1 (5%) |
| 1 | 20 (95%) |
| Baseline viral load (median in million IU/ml) | 5 |
| Fibrosis stage (unknown in 2) | |
| No fibrosis (F0) | 1 (5%) |
| Portal fibrosis or (F1) | 8 (36%) |
| Few septa (F2) | 7 (32%) |
| Many septa (F3) | 0 (0%) |
| Cirrhosis (F4) | 6 (27%) |
| Activity grade (unknown in 2) | |
| None (A0) | 2 (10%) |
| Mild (A1) | 15 (67%) |
| Moderate (A2) | 5 (23%) |
| Severe (A3) | 0 (0%) |
| Biopsy size (median in mm) | 17 |
| Status of patients (response to treatment) | |
| Sustained responder | 4 (19%) |
| Relapser | 1 (5%) |
| Non responder | 10 (48%) |
| Not treated | 6 (28%) |
HCV – hepatitis C virus; HIV – human immunodeficiency virus; sd – standard deviation.