Frequency of restrictive pulmonary function tests in patients with chronic Hepatitis C

Abstract

Hepatis C infection is a common health problem world wide and is the major cause of chronic liver disease in Pakistan. Common complications of chronic hepatitis c infection are cirrhosis, ascities and hepatocellular carcinoma. Also HCV infection is associated with several extra hepatic manifestations including interstitial lung fibrosis. It has been found that frequency of pulmonary fibrosis is increased in patients with cirrhosis of liver as the stage of cirrhosis advances.This lung fibrosis can cause restrictive pattern of pulmonary function tests. This study was conducted to determine frequency of restrictive pulmonary function in patients with different stages of chronic hepatitis C infection, based on child pough classification.
 Study design
 This is descriptive case study
 Method
 99 patients of age range 20 to 80 year, both males and females having chronic hepatitis C infection and interferon based treatment naïve patients were included from outpatient and inpatient department were selected. Patients were divided into three groups according to child’s criteria i.e. group A, group B, and group C. Pulmonary function tests were performed on patients in all three groups to look for FEV1/FVC ratio in all patients. FEV1/FVC ratio more than 80 was considered as restrictive pulmonary function.
 Results
 Out of 99 patients 32(35%) were found to have restrictive pattern of pulmonary functions
 Conclusion
 Chronic hepatitis C infection is associated with restrictive pattern of pulmonary function, suggestive of pulmonary fibrosis.