Disease progression in chronic hepatitis C patients with normal alanine aminotransferase levels

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the 232 patients

Characteristics	(n = 232)
Age (yr, mean ± SD)	57.2 ± 10.7
Gender, male/female	89 (38):143 (62)
Weight (kg, mean ± SD)	61.6 ± 9.3
Alcohol consumption	32 (14)
Diabetes	29 (13)
Estimated duration of infection (mo, median, range)	18 (0–398)
Alanine aminotransferase (IU/L, median, quartile)	25 (19–32)
Aspartate aminotransferase (IU/L, median, quartile)	30 (23–48)
Platelet (103/mm3, median, quartile)	179 (13–224)
Aspartate aminotransferase: platelet ratio index (median, range)	0.4 (0.1–7.5)
> 1	50 (22)
Genotype1
1b	12 (57)
1 others	1 (5)
2	8 (38)

¹Percent value refers to percentage within studied patients. Data are expressed as absolute numbers (percentage) or mean ± SD.

Table 2 Disease progression hazard ratio for each factor according to gender

	Univariate		Multivariate
	Hazard ratio (95%CI)	P value	Hazard ratio (95%CI)	P value
Male
ALT (IU/L) > 26 vs ≤ 25	4.67 (1.03-21.1)	0.045	5.35 (1.05-27.3)	0.043
Platelet (103/mm3)	0.98 (0.97-0.99)	0.002	0.98 (0.96-0.99)	0.012
Age (yr)	1.07 (1.01-1.13)	0.030	1.06 (0.98-1.14)	0.12
AST (IU/L)	1.02 (1.01-1.03)	< 0.001	1.00 (0.99-1.02)	0.77
Female
ALT (IU/L) > 23 vs ≤ 22	3.51 (1.17-10.5)	0.025	4.40 (1.12-15.8)	0.023
Platelet (103/mm3)	0.97 (0.96-0.98)	< 0.001	0.97 (0.96-0.98)	< 0.001
Age (yr)	1.06 (1.01-1.10)	0.017	1.04 (0.98-1.09)	0.18
AST (IU/L)	1.02 (1.01-1.03)	< 0.001	1.00 (0.99-1.01)	0.97
Diabetes (yes vs no)	3.23 (1.24-8.41)	0.016	2.57 (0.83-7.92)	0.10

AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase.