[Association between diabetes mellitus and hepatitis C in kidney transplant patients]

Diabetes mellitus appearing after transplant (PTDM) has generally been attributed to immunosuppressive treatment. However, the findings of several studies suggest a possible relationship between hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and diabetes mellitus, both in the general population and in liver or kidney transplant patients.

We reviewed data corresponding to 325 kidney transplant patients who did not have diabetes before transplant and were treated with ciclosporin A posttransplant. We explored whether factors such as age, gender, weight, renal disease, immunosuppression, rejection episodes or HCV could be independent risk factors for PTDM.

Ninety four of the 325 patients were HCV positive and 231 were HCV negative. PTDM was observed in 22.3% of the HCV positive patients versus 6.5% of the HCV negative patients (p < 0.001). The independent factors found by multivariate analysis to be predictive of PTDM were: HCV positivity (OR: 5.65, IC 95%: 2.6-12), body mass index (OR: 1,10, IC 95%: 1.02-1.2) and age (OR: 1.07, IC 95%: 1.03-1.12).

Our findings support a link between HCV and PTDM.