Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of patients with, and those without, chronic HCV infection

Characteristic	HCV positive (n = 40)	HCV negative (n = 808)	P
Age, (mean ± SD, yr)	50 ± 14	51 ± 15	> 0.05
Male	28/40	550/808	> 0.05
ALT, (mean ± SD, upper limit of normal value)	136 ± 7.8	132 ± 6.9	> 0.05
Liver histologic activity
None or mild (G0-G1)	7/40	142/808	> 0.05
Moderate or severe (G2-G4)	33/40	666/808	> 0.05
Liver histologic fibrosis
None or portal fibrosis (S0-S1)	8/40	17/808	> 0.05
Few or many septa or cirrhosis (S2-S4)	32/40	791/808	> 0.05
Liver lymphoid infiltrate
None	0/40	0/808	> 0.05
Mild	32/40	646/808	> 0.05
Severe	8/40 (65)	162/808	> 0.05
Liver lymphoid aggregate
None	36/40	805/808
Yes	4/40	3/808	0.000