Table 1.

Baseline and clinical characteristics of HCV-infected patients and healthy control subjects.

Variable	Chronic HCV (n = 437)	Liver cirrhosis (n = 88)	HCC (n = 38)	Healthy control (599)	p a value
Age (yrs.)	43.23 ± 22.25	53.20 ± 19.79	63.23 ± 10.70	30.79 ± 8.90	<0.0001
Sex
Male count (%)	214 (49%)	44 (50%)	18 (47.4%)	577 (96.3%)	<0.0001
Female count (%)	223 (51%)	44 (50%)	20 (52.6%)	22 (3.7%)
BMI^∗	29.2 (25.67–33.39)	30.06 (26.22–33.06)	25.99 (21.89–31.39)		0.804
Platelet (per  109/L)∗	230 (178.75–282.25)	163.5 (108.50–205.50)	104.00 (51.50–139.00)		<0.0001
ALT∗∗	87.58 ± 119.76	93.18 ± 68.88	114.33 ± 31.78		0.738
AST∗∗	55.36 ± 41.87	77.28 ± 47.20	91.33 ± 24.58		<0.0001
ALP∗∗	113.37 ± 78.91	133.66 ± 90.04	147.00 ± 96.70		0.072
HCV viral Load (log⁡10)∗	6.04 (5.42–6.53)	6.08 (5.57–6.45)	5.98 (2.79–7.24)		0.552

^∗Values are expressed as median interquartile range (25th–75th). ^∗∗Values are expressed as mean ± SD.

p ^a: nonparametric test and one-way ANOVA for continuous data and Chi square test for categorical data.

ALT: alanine aminotransferase; AST: aspartate aminotransferase; ALP: alkaline phosphatase.