Reduction of virus burden-induced splenectomy in patients with liver cirrhosis related to hepatitis C virus infection

Table 1 Characteristics of cirrhotic patients with HCV infection

	Splenectomy (+)	Splenectomy (-)
Age (yr)	62.6 ± 5.5	63.2 ± 13.6
Gender (m:f)	8:12	13:19
HCV Serotype
1	15	29
2	3	3
unknowna	2	0
Child’s Classification
A	11	18
B	6	8
C	3	6
Association of HCC	7/20	9/32
Total bilirubin (mg/dL)	1.2 ± 0.5	1.2 ± 0.7
Albumin (g/L)	35 ± 6	37 ± 4
γ-globulin (g/L)	23 ± 0.8	20 ± 5
AST (IU/L)	65.3 ± 30.5	61.8 ± 23.7
ALT (IU/L)	31.5 ± 9.1	25.1 ± 4.9
Platelets (×104 /μL)	15.2 ± 4.5	8.1 ± 2.7b
NK cell activity (%)	41.2 ± 19.3	24.7 ± 15.3b
CD4/CD8	1.2 ± 0.4	1.6 ± 0.6c
β2-MG (mg/L)	2.5 ± 1.2	2.4 ± 0.6n.s
sIL2R (U/mL)	917 ± 445	842 ± 190n.s

HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma; AST: aspartic aminotransferase; ALT: alanine aminotransferase; NK cells: natural killer cells; β2-MG: β2-microglobulin; sIL2R: soluble interleukin 2 receptor. a: undeterminable serotype; ^bP < 0.001, ^cP < 0.05 vs splenectomized patients; NS: no significant difference.