Epidemiology and natural history of hepatitis C virus infection

Table 2 Follow-up studies to evaluate liver-related morbidities and mortality associated with hepatitis C virus infection

Ref.	Study population	Mean follow-up (yr)	Identification of infection	Liver-related disease		Mortality		Comments
				LC	HCC	All-cause	Liver-related
Tong et al[42], 1995United States	213 patients	3.9	Patients recalled the time of transfusion	51.1%	5.3%	15.3%	14.5%	Most participants had symptoms
								Patients from tertiary care center with a history of transfusion
								Recall bias
Seeff et al[38], 2001United States	222 patients	25	Time of transfusion			67.1%	4.1%	70% were males
Wiese et al[44], 2005Germany	683 CHC women	25	Vaccinated in 1978-1979	1.3%	0.1%			Relatively young and healthy
								CHC defined as HCV RNA (+)
Kenny-Walsh[37], 1999Ireland	376 CHC women	17	Vaccinated in 1977-1978	2%				Relatively young and healthy
								CHC defined as HCV RNA (+)
Thomas et al[41], 2000United States	1667 drug abusers	8.8	First injection use	ESLD incidence:3101				1/3 with HIV (+)
								Recall bias
Tanaka et al[40], 2004Japan	1927 blood donors	8.3	Unknown		3341			Participants from Osaka Red Cross Blood Center
								relatively healthy
Suruki et al[39], 2006Japan	667 CHC adults	7.9	Unknown		9831			Community-based
								CHC defined by at least 1 HCV RNA/core antigen result
								70% participants of age older than 60 yr
								Serial tests for serum ALT
Uto et al[43], 2009Japan	1125 adults	8.2	Unknown			25001		Community-based
								Tested for HCV RNA/core antigen

¹Per 100000 person-year. LC: Liver cirrhosis; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; CHC: Chronic hepatitis C.