Assessment of cardiac involvement of hepatitis C virus; tissue Doppler imaging and NTproBNP study

Introduction: Hepatitis C disease burden is substantially increasing in Egyptian community, it is estimated that prevalence of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Egyptian community reach 22% of total population. Recently there is a global alert of HCV cardiovascular complications. Objective: To evaluate LV diastolic functions of HCV patients using tissue Doppler Imaging and NTPBNP. Methods: 30 HCV patients of 30 years, sex BMI matched controls were evaluated by PCR, ECG, Echocardiography ‘‘conventional Doppler, pulsed wave tissue Doppler (PW-TD), strain rate imaging’’ NTPBNP to assess LV diastolic functions. Mean age was 32.8 years± 5.1 in HCV group, 29.8 years± 6.6 in control group. Cardiovascular anomalies and predisposing factors were excluded. Results: HCV group has shown significant increase in QTc interval, significant statistical increase in A wave, deceleration time; (p 0.05), highly significant decrease in tissue Doppler Ea (p 0.001), highly significant decrease in Aa (p 0.001), highly significant increased E/Ea ratio (p value 0.001), significant decrease in Ea/Aa ratio and significant increase in SRa (p 0.05). NTPBNP levels showed ighly significant increase with mean value 222 pg/ml ± 283 in HCV group and 32.7 pg/ml ± 21.2 in control group (p value 0.001). The best cut-off value of NTPBNP to detect diastolic dysfunction in HCV group was 213 pg/ml. No statistical differences in SRe/SRa and E/SRe ratios were observed, however they had significant correlation with NTPBNP level and tissue Doppler parameters. The best cut-off value of E/SRe ratio to detect diastolic dysfunction in HCV group was 0.91, with 75% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Conclusion and recommendation: This data show the first direct evidence that HCV infection causes diastolic dysfunction without any other predisposing factors, probably due to chronic inflammatory reaction with mild fibrosis in the heart. Previous studies did not follow strict inclusion and exclusion criteria that confirm the independent role of HCV to cause diastolic dysfunction. Tissue Doppler was more sensitive to diagnose diastolic dysfunction than conventional Doppler.