Cognitive impairment in children with chronic Hepatitis C Virus: Case control study

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is the most common cause of chronic liver disease of infectious etiology in children. This study aims to compare cognitive impairment, and psychological status of treatment-naïve HCV children with control group. Treatment-naïve children with HCV and an equal control group of children of matched age and gender were recruited. Assessment included measures of children’s cognitive functioning, behavior, depression and anxiety as well as laboratory investigations and liver biopsy. Overall 102 children of both genders were recruited; the majority was from rural areas and from middle social class. Their age ranged from 7 to 17 years old. Only 6.9% reported positive family history of Psychiatric disorders while 35.3% reported current Psychiatric disorder. The most frequent diagnosis in the sample was depression (16.7%). Depression scores correlated negatively with liver biopsy activity ( p = 0.024) and positively with WBCS ( p = 0.0024). Anxiety scores correlated positively with WBCS ( p = 0.017). Verbal IQ, performance IQ and total IQ correlated with the social class and with the liver biopsy activity. Also it was found that higher depression scores can predict lower verbal IQ. Depression, social class and liver Inflammation are predictors of cognitive impairment in children with HCV.