Table I.

Clinicopathological characteristics of patients with chronic hepatitis C (CH-C), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and normal liver (control)

Characteristics	Group	Mean	Median	Min.	Max.	SD
Age [years]	CH-C	37.48	32.00	18.00	72.00	14.51
	HCC	51.13	49.00	20.00	98.00	13.40
	Control	51.25	57.50	20.00	72.00	19.93
Grade of tumour*	HCC	2.05	2.00	1.00	3.00	0.57
Duration of infection [years]	CH-C	23.79	22.00	7.00	44.00	9.21
BMI		24.25	24.22	17.80	37.61	3.86
ALT [U/l]		81.15	63.00	18.00	292.00	60.07
AST [U/l]		58.25	42.00	15.70	182.00	38.74
AFP [ng/ml]		5.97	3.61	1.30	67.04	9.54
HCV RNA [IU/ml]		976419.35	88300.00	941.00	21500000.00	3051531.16
Total protein [g/dl]		7.22	7.21	6.02	9.60	0.68
Albumin [g/dl]		3.87	3.84	2.79	5.66	0.46
Gamma globulin [g/dl]		1.44	1.48	0.84	2.26	0.34
Platelets [G/l]		215.26	208.00	77.00	432.00	70.10
Cholesterol [mg/dl]		177.21	178.65	99.00	274.00	39.08
GGTP [U/l]		52.69	47.00	6.00	140.00	35.97
Grading (G)*		1.78	2.00	1.00	3.00	0.75
Staging (S)*		1.70	1.00	0.00	4.00	1.07
Steatosis (%)		10.75	3.00	0.00	70.00	16.89

AFP – α-fetoprotein, ALT – alanine aminotransferase, AST – aspartate aminotransferase, BMI – body mass index, GGTP – γ-glutamyl- transpeptidase. Grade of tumour – differentiation of HCC as determined by pathologist, G – grading, necro-inflammatory activity in liver, S – staging, fibrosis scores;

^*parameters evaluated in a semi-quantitative scale METAVIR (see Material and methods), SD – standard deviation.