Association between chronic hepatitis C infection and metabolic syndrome: A meta-analysis.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients have been found to be more susceptible to metabolic syndrome (MetS), but the results remain unclear and lack of a meta-analysis. Databases including PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library were searched to identify all studies concerning HCV and MetS. Funnel plots combined with Begg's tests and Egger's tests were used to analysis the possible publication bias. The odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to access the effect of HCV infection on the risk of MetS. Eight articles, involving a total of 57387 HCV patients were included. HCV infection was significantly associated with an increased incidence of MetS (OR = 1.73; 95% CI, 1.19–2.52). After adjustment according to the sensitivity analysis, one included article was removed to decrease the publication bias and high heterogeneity, of which the results showed that HCV infection was still associated with an increased incidence of MetS (OR = 1.93; 95% CI, 1.39–2.68). HCV patients tend to have a significant increased risk for MetS, but more large-scale studies are needed to confirm this and explore the exact mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]