Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. May 8, 2015; 7(7): 922-925
Published online May 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i7.922
Published online May 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i7.922
Cognitive dysfunction and hepatitis C virus infection
Antonio Solinas, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Maria Rita Piras, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Angelo Deplano, Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Angelo Deplano, Unit of Internal Medicine, Lanusei Hospital, 08045 Lanusei, Italy
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: The Authors have no conflict of interests to declare, had full access to all of the data in the study, and take responsibility for the accuracy of the data analysis.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Antonio Solinas, Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Viale San Pietro 8, 07100 Sassari, Italy. soltoc@uniss.it
Telephone: +39-79-228443 Fax: +39-79-216282
Received: January 18, 2015
Peer-review started: January 19, 2015
First decision: February 7, 2015
Revised: February 23, 2015
Accepted: March 16, 2015
Article in press: March 18, 2015
Published online: May 8, 2015
Peer-review started: January 19, 2015
First decision: February 7, 2015
Revised: February 23, 2015
Accepted: March 16, 2015
Article in press: March 18, 2015
Published online: May 8, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Cognitive dysfunction in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a distinct form of minimal hepatic encephalopathy. It is unclear to what extent HCV triggers an irreversible neurodegenerative brain damage. New insights on this issue will be provided by longitudinal studies using the protocols established by the DSM-5 for cognitive disorders associated with FDG-PET and magnetic resonance imaging protocols for major cognitive disorders. Also, the characteristics of portal hypertension, including the extent of the liver blood flow and the type of portal shunts, should be evaluated.