Thrombocytopenia as a Clinical Manifestation of Hepatitis C Among Patients With a Positive AntiHCV Test

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been recognized as the cause of thrombocytopenia (defined as a platelet count of amp;lt; 150,000 platelets/uL) occurring in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Thrombocytopenia occurs in 64% 76% of patients with cirrhosis and/or fibrosis, compared with 6% of noncirrhotic patients with chronic liver disease. The aim was to study the prevalence of thrombocytopenia in HCV patients without cirrhosis and splenomegaly. A crosssectional study was carried out in the gastrointestinal out patient department (G.I. OPD) of the Sindh institute of urology and transplantation (SIUT) from SeptemberNovember 2013. 30 patients aged between 18 60 years with a positive antiHCV result were included. Patients with enlarged spleen, liver cirrhosis on an ultrasound of the abdomen, and thrombocytopenia related to other causes were excluded from the study. A total of 30 patients satisfying the inclusion criteria were selected for study. The mean age of the patients was 42.2 ± 11.4 (16 60), and they included 21 females and 7 males. The majority of patients had normal liver function tests with normal spleen size. On the CBC, 13 had platelets of less than 150,000/µL and 17 patients had a platelet count in the normal range, i.e., 150,000 400,000/µL. The prevalence of thrombocytopenia was found to be 43.3% among those with hepatitis C. The conducted study showed moderate frequency of hepatitis Cinduced thrombocytopenia in patients without hepatic fibrosis and splenomegaly among the Pakistani population.