Hepatitis C virus infection in inclusion body myositis: A case-control study

To clarify whether there is any association between inclusion body myositis (IBM) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

We assessed the prevalence of HCV infection in 114 patients with IBM whose muscle biopsies were analyzed pathologically for diagnostic purpose from 2002 to 2012 and in 44 age-matched patients with polymyositis diagnosed in the same period as a control by administering a questionnaire survey to the physicians in charge. We also compared clinicopathologic features including the duration from onset to development of representative symptoms of IBM and the extent of representative pathologic changes between patients with IBM with and without HCV infection.

A significantly higher number of patients with IBM (28%) had anti-HCV antibodies as compared with patients with polymyositis (4.5%; odds ratio 8.2, 95% confidence interval 1.9-36) and the general Japanese population in their 60s (3.4%). Furthermore, between patients with IBM with and without HCV infection, we did not find any significant difference in the clinicopathologic features, indicating that the 2 groups have essentially the same disease regardless of HCV infection.

Our results provide the statistical evidence for an association between IBM and HCV infection, suggesting a possible pathomechanistic link between the 2 conditions.