Familial clustering of (mostly) HCV-related cirrhosis. A case-control study

Background: Increased prevalence of cirrhosis in cirrhotics’ families in previous studies. Aims: To compare the prevalence of cirrhosis in cirrhotics’ families with that in families of patients with non-hepatic diseases. Methods: Case-control study including 500 index cases with cirrhosis and 500 pair-matched controls with chronic non-hepatic diseases, interviewed about cirrhosis in first-degree relatives and spouses using standardized forms. Results: Ninety-three index cases (88% anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive) and 13 controls had one or more cirrhotics among first-degree relatives and/or spouses (odds ratio (OR) 7.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.21–12.9); cirrhosis was found in 123/4485 first-degree relatives of the index cases and in 16/4086 of controls (OR 7.17 95% CI 4.25–12.09), in 14/467 spouses of the index cases and in 1/416 spouses of controls (OR 12.8, 95% CI 1.67–97.96). The percentage of secondary cases in the families of 440 anti-HCV-positive and 60 anti-HCV-negative index cases was similar (18.8 and 21.6%, respectively). Almost all the secondary cases in families of anti-HCV-positive index cases and none in families of anti-HCV-negative index cases were anti-HCV-positive. Conclusions: Cirrhosis is significantly more frequent among first-degree relatives and spouses of patients with cirrhosis, mostly HCV-related, than among first-degree relatives and spouses of controls