Cutaneous changes as a symptom of either HCV infection or therapy complication

The hepatitis type C virus (HCV) and chronic hepatic disease, which the virus induces, are significant health problems of truly global magnitude. According to WHO data, approximately 180 million people are infected with HCV world-wide. The majority of patients, with either acute or chronic infection, do not demonstrate evident clinical symptoms of liver disease, while concomitant, non-specific extrahepatic symptoms are fairly often observed, affecting joints, muscles, nervous system, gastric tract or skin. An accurate, consolidated evaluation of observed extrahepatic symptoms could become a valuable diagnostic indication, decisive for the accurate diagnosis of HCV infection.
        This paper presents the pathogenesis, epidemiology and the clinical picture of HCV infection, with particular consideration of cutaneous changes, which may either accompany HCV or be an adverse effect of combined therapy with interferon alpha and ribavirin.

Keywords: cutaneous changes, viral hepatitis, HCV, cutaneous changes, viral hepatitis, HCV, interferon alfa, cutaneous changes, viral hepatitis, HCV, interferon alfa