Table 1 Epidemiological, clinical and laboratory characteristics of 100 patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Variable	Number	Mean (SD)	Range
Age (years)		54.2 (13.9)	19–74
Gender (male/female)	54/46
Drug addiction (yes/no)	10/90
Previous transfusion (yes/no)	31/69
Alcohol intake (⩾50 g/day for men and ⩾20 g for women) (yes/no)	7/93
Duration of infection (years)*		22 (8.0)	3–45
Age at infection (years)*		23.9 (11.4)	1–55
HCV genotype (1/non‐1)	50/50
Serum iron (μmol/l; 11–32 μmol/l)		24.3 (9.5)	6.3–56.1
Transferrin saturation (%; 20–50)		41.9 (17.9)	9–97
Serum ferritin (ng/ml; 5–365 ng/ml)		320 (363)	6–2900
HIC (μmol/g dry tissue; <25 μmol/g)†		22.1 (26.9)	2.2–245.5
Iron index (HIC/age; <1.9)†		0.5 (0.7)	0.1–5.3
Hepatic iron grading (Searle's score system; 0)		0‡	0–4
Platelets (elements/μl; 150–450 elements/μl)		193 (67)	57–433
Aspartate aminotransferase (U/l; 0–40 U/l)		69 (45)	20–279
Alanine aminotransferase (U/l; 0–40 U/l)		102 (68)	21–384
γ‐Glutamyl transpeptidase (U/l; 0–50 U/l)		57 (43)	7–197
Alkaline phosphatase (U/l; 90–360 U/l)		159 (59)	45–361
Bilirubin (μmol/l; 2–18 μmol/l)		13.7 (8.5)	1.7–39.3
Albumin (g/dl; 4–6 g/dl)		3.9 (0.3)	2.7–5.4
γ‐Globulins (g/dl; 0.6–1.8 g/dl)		1.4 (0.3)	0.6–2.6
Prothrombin time (%; 70–110)		93.8 (8.7)	67–109
Histological grading (Ishak's score)		3§	1–8
Histological staging (Ishak's score)		2§	0–6
Significant fibrosis (Ishak's score >2) (yes/no)	48/52
Histological cirrhosis (Ishak's score >4) (yes/no)	14/86
Any mutation of HFE gene (yes/no)‡	30/70
Any mutation of β‐globin gene (yes/no)‡	13/87
Any mutation of HFE gene or β‐globin gene (yes/no)‡	42/58

HCV, hepatitis C virus; HFE, haemachromatosis; HIC, hepatic iron concentration.

*Data were available for 41 of 100 patients.

†Data were available for 97 of 100 patients.

‡One patient had both an HFE and a β‐globin gene mutation.

§Values are medians.