Assessment of Dermatological Disorders with Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Aim: Although hepatitis C virus (HCV) is essentially hepatopathic, there are many extra-hepatic symptoms that may develop with associated HCV infection. Of these, dermatological findings constitute a significant proportion of extra-hepatic symptoms. The aim of this study was to evaluate dermatological diseases accompanying to chronic HCV infection in our region. 
Patients and Methods: From a total of 2050 patients diagnosed and followed up for chronic HCV infection in the Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology Clinics in a 12-years period between 2008 and 2020, 394 determined with concurrent dermatological disease were included in the study. 
Results: Chronic HCV patients diagnosed with dermatological disease comprised 218 (%58.6) females and 176 (%41.4) males with a mean age of 56±17 years. In the patients with chronic HCV infection presenting at the dermatology outpatient clinic, pruritus was determined most (%18.5) and followed by contact dermatitis (%17.5). At univariate analyses female gender (p:0,005, OR:3,329, CI 95% [1,439-7,701]) and advanced age (p:0,013, OR:1,029, CI 95% [1,006-1,052]) were detected as significant variables of frequent dermatological diseases. The female gender ( p: 0,038, OR:2,682, CI 95% [1,054-6,826]) was detected as the predictor of most frequent dermatological diagnoses in chronic HCV infection at multivariate logistic regression analysis. 
Conclusion: The most common reasons for presentation of patients with HCV infection at the dermatology outpatient clinic were determined to be pruritus and contact dermatitis. The frequency and variability of the diagnoses seen in chronic hepatitis C patients after presentation at the dermatology outpatient clinic suggest the need for further studies in this area with more standardised patient groups using standard laboratory techniques.