الفهرس 
Hepatitis COnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This study was carried out to study the frequency of occurrence of ANA in an Egyptian sample of patients with chronic hepatitis C as well as it’s correlation with clinical, biochemical , histological features of the disease and their relation to therapy.
There was no significant difference in the frequency of occurrence of ANA between Egyptian sample of patients with chronic hepatitis C and healthy subjects at base line, but there was highly significant increase in the frequency of occurrence of ANA after 6 months of treatment with interferon and ribavirin (interferon and ribavirin induced autoimmunity).
There was highly significant increase in ALT, AST in ANA positive patients in comparison with ANA negative patients at base line, suggesting more liver cell destruction in ANA positive patients.
ANA is found to be associated with more advanced fibrosis, where ANA positive patients tend to obtain higher fibrosis score on hepatitis activity index than others.
There was significant correlation between ALT, serum albumin, age on one hand and ANA titre on the other hand at base line in group 1a, where ALT and age were directly proportional with ANA titre but albumin was found to be inversely proportional with the titre.
Patients who develop ANA after therapy were less liable for ALT normalization at this time period (from 6 to 12 months of therapy).
There was highly significant correlation between ANA titre and serum ALT level in group 1b after 6 months of antiviral therapy, where ALT level was directly proportional with ANA titre.
We conclude that
ANA positivity is not uncommon in patients with HCV infection, they are associated with symptomatic disease, extrahepatic manifestations, more sever hepatic cell destruction and subsequent fibrosis in non treated patients.
Interferon and ribavirin therapy are associated with induced ANA in chronic hepatitis C, these ANA are associated with resistance to response to therapy.
Presence of positive ANA in patients with HCV infection may predict future fibrosis of liver, non response to therapy and extrahepatic disease.