Renal cancer lymph node involvement.
J Gastrointestin Liver Dis ; 25 3 :Sep. To our knowledge, this study is the first one comparing CHC patients to controls with regard to soft tissue body composition changes. Soft tissue and bone body composition parameters were compared between the groups using the Mann-Whitney test.
These parameters were correlated using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient - rho with independent variables age, gender, body mass index - BMI, cigarette smoking, time since CHC diagnosis, viral load, fibrosis grade, type of treatment, time of treatment for the entire CHC group and also for subgroups according to gender.
Several risk factors were associated with the reduced fat mass: low BMI, cigarette smoking and peginterferon alpha 2a plus ribavirin treatment. Peginterferon alpha 2a and ribavirin treatment negatively correlated with lean body parameters, especially in CHC males group.
Bone mineral density BMD was lower as compared to controls and was correlated with low BMI, cigarette smoking and peginterferon alpha renal cancer lymph node involvement and ribavirin treatment. A low BMI, cigarette smoking and peginterferon alpha 2a and ribavirin therapy were associated with a low fat mass and low BMD.