Chronic HCV is associated with a higher risk of CKD

Chronic HCV infection is associated with an increased risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD). What’s more, the degree of risk of depends on viral load and genotype.

Researchers analyzed data from 13,805 Taiwanese adults from a prospective, community-based cohort study. Mean age at enrollment was 47.5 years. Based on the detectable HCV load, 431 patients had chronic HCV infection. Chronic HCV infection, viral load, and phenotype assessment were associated with CKD, defined as continuous proteinuria or an estimated glomerular filtration rate of less than 60 mL/min / 1.73 m 2.

Subjects with chronic HCV infection had about a two-fold increase in CKD: Adjusted Prevalence Ratio (POR) of 1.91. Patients with chronic infection had the highest risk of the highest tertile of serum HCV RNA: POR 3.44.

Among participants with a high HCV viral load, POR was 2.62 for patients with genotype 1 and 4.99 for patients with genotype 2. In patients who include only the subtype with detectable serum HCV RNA, the risk of having CKD is about 3-fold to genotype 1 for genotype 2.

The relationship between HCV and CKD is controversial. Taiwan is endemic to HCV and has the highest global prevalence of renal failure.

This cross-sectional study shows that chronic HCV infection is an independent risk factor for CKD in Taiwan. In patients with high HCV viral load and/or HCV genotype 2, the risk of nephropathy is particularly high. The authors requested prospective studies to clarify whether HCV viral load and genotype are associated with an increased likelihood of CKD and renal failure [Lai TS et al. High HCV viral load and genotype 2 are powerful predictors of chronic kidney disease.