Virus clearance reduces bone fracture in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis and chronic liver disease caused by hepatitis C virus

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J Med Virol. 2010 Jan 19;82(3):390-395. [Epub ahead of print]

Virus clearance reduces bone fracture in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis

and chronic liver disease caused by hepatitis C virus.

Arase Y, Suzuki F, Suzuki Y, Akuta N, Kobayashi M, Sezaki H, Hosaka T, Kawamura

Y, Yatsuji H, Hirakawa M, Ikeda K, Hsieh SD, Oomoto Y, Amakawa K, Kato H, Kazawa

T, Tsuji H, Kobayashi T, Kumada H.

Department of Hepatology and Okinaka Memorial Institute for Medical Research

Toranomon Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.

Osteoporosis is often present in postmenopausal women. The aim of this

retrospective cohort study was to assess the cumulative incidence and predictive

factors for bone fracture after cessation of interferon (IFN) in postmenopausal

women with osteoporosis and chronic liver disease caused by hepatitis C virus

(HCV). A total of 420 postmenopausal women treated with IFN monotherapy were

enrolled. The mean observation period was 7.2 years. The primary goal was the

development of bone fracture. Evaluation was carried out by using the

Kaplan-Meier method and the proportional hazards analysis. Thirty-one out of

420 patients sustained bone fracture. The cumulative development rate of bone

fracture was 3.6% at 5th year, 9.2% at 10th year, and 17.4% at 15th year.

Multivariate proportional hazards analysis showed that bone fracture after

cessation of IFN therapy occurred when histological staging of the liver was

advanced (hazard ratio (HR): 2.54; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.21-5.31; P =

0.013), serum albumin level was < 3.5g/dl (HR: 2.25; 95% CI = 1.10-4.59; P =

0.026), and virus clearance was not achieved (HR: 3.65; 95% CI = 1.11-12.05; P =

0.033). The results indicate that virus clearance causes a reduction of

two-thirds in the risk of bone fracture after cessation of IFN therapy in

postmenopausal women with osteoporosis and chronic liver disease caused by HCV.

J. Med. Virol. 82:390-395, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PMID: 20087925 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]