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. 2023 Nov;55(11):2951-2958.
doi: 10.1007/s11255-023-03587-0. Epub 2023 Apr 6.

Hepatitis C and hepatitis B virus infection in hemodialysis patients after nationwide direct antiviral agents therapy-experience of 10 Romanian HD centers

Luciana Marc  1   2   3   4 , Adelina Mihaescu  5   6   7   8 , Raluca Lupusoru  9   10   11 , Oana Schiller  4 , Flaviu Bob  1   2   3   4 , Lazar Chisavu  1   2   3   4 , Felix Bende  9   11 , Roxana Sirli  9   11 , Adalbert Schiller  1   2   3
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Hepatitis C and hepatitis B virus infection in hemodialysis patients after nationwide direct antiviral agents therapy-experience of 10 Romanian HD centers

Luciana Marc et al. Int Urol Nephrol. 2023 Nov.

Abstract

Purpose: End-stage kidney disease patients (ESKD) receiving hemodialysis (HD) are at a greater risk of hepatitis virus (HV) infections due to the invasive nature of the procedures, frequent hospital stays and surgeries, as well as the immune deficiency status of ESKD.

The aim: This study was to reassess the hepatitis virus infections prevalence in the HD population in Romania after 5 years of oral DAAs therapy and assess the impact on HD patients' outcomes in two cohorts (2015 and 2019).

Methods: We compared ESKD patients treated with HD in 10 HD centers from the historical regions of Romania in 2015 (n = 1401, Mean age 59.7 ± 12.92 years) with patients treated in the same centers in 2019 (n = 1698, mean age 61 ± 12.93 years). All patients went through HD therapy for more than 90 days.

Results: The patients from the 2019 cohort were significantly older (p = 0.005), had a longer duration of HD therapy (p < 0.0001), and had more vascular calcifications (p = 0.015); the crude one-year mortality rate did not differ from the 2015 cohort (9.9 vs. 10.7%, p = 0.46). The prevalence of HBV infection did not differ between the cohorts (4.7% vs. 4.8, p = 0.604) but the prevalence of HCV significantly decreased from 2015 to 2019 (16.9 vs. 10.5%, p < 0.0001).

Conclusion: After 15 years of a nationwide infection prevention program for HV infections and 5 years of DAAs treatment in Romania, the prevalence of HBV did not change but HCV infections decreased significantly, however, it still remained high.

Keywords: DAA; ESKD; Hemodialysis; Hepatitis B virus; Hepatitis C virus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Kaplan–Meier analysis for all-cause mortality according to hepatitis virus infection status (infected versus non-infected) in 2019 cohort
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Kaplan–Meier analysis for all-cause mortality according to hepatitis virus infection status (infected versus non-infected) in 2015 cohort
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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