06/04/2002 By Anne MacLennan
Total abstinence from beverage alcohol should be recommended to patients infected with hepatitis C virus as even at moderate levels, alcohol use appears to increase fibrosis progression in these patients.
For patients unable to achieve abstinence, then occasional alcohol use is probably less harmful than is low or moderate daily consumption, suggest J. Westin and colleagues from Goteborg University and Chalmers University of Technology, Goteborg, Sweden, and the Royal Free Hospital, London, England. Excessive drinking in combination with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is known to increase liver cirrhosis risk.
Until now, however, the effect of moderate alcohol intake in patients with this condition has not been elucidated. In this study, 78 patients with HCV infection and moderate alcohol consumption were analysed retrospectively and their lifetime drinking history recorded.
All of the patients had had two liver biopsies, with a median time between biopsies of 6.3 years, and none had received any antiviral therapy.
Except for one patient, all participants had daily consumption of below 40 g of ethanol in the period between the biopsies.
Those patients whose liver fibrosis had deteriorated were found to have higher total alcohol consumption and higher drinking frequency between biopsies than did the other participants. In patients with a total alcohol intake and drinking frequency above the median level for the group, degree of fibrosis progression was found to be greater.
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