Habibullah Shaikh, Yasmin Shaikh, Anwar Ali Jamali.
Chronic Viral Hepatitis; Serum Insulin Level.
Professional Med J Jan ;25(3):376-80.

Objectives: To examine the serum insulin level in viral hepatitis B and C patients at different stages of disease. Study Design: Observational study. Period: Twelve months. Setting: Biochemistry Department BMSI, JPMC Karachi. Methods: The diagnosed patients for hepatitis B and C virus infection with and without cirrhosis were included. Patients were selected after diagnosis of the disease by ELISA method. Subjects diagnosed as negative were enrolled as controls in the study. Serum insulin estimation was done by ELISA and blood glucose by Hexokinase method, prothrombin time by one stage (coagulation) method and liver enzymes were assayed was by enzymatic (Kinetic) method. For paired and correlation data analysis, SPSS 10.0 version for windows was used. For all comparisons, upto 0.05 P value was considered significant. Results: The insulin, fasting blood glucose and albumin mean values as compared to control were found significant statistically (P<0.05). However in all groups AST and ALT mean values found statistically highly significant (P<0.01), which indicates liver damage progression with consequent increase in serum insulin levels in these patients. Conclusion: Tests for early analysis of serum insulin levels should be performed in those cases that are diagnosed as hepatitis B or C positive, along with liver function tests, to reduce the increased rate of morbidity and mortality in co-morbid condition.

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