10) were included in multivariate regression models. To avoid the effect of colinearity, diabetes, IR, HOMA score, blood glucose levels, and insulin levels, as well as waist circumference, BMI, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, metabolic Wnt inhibitor syndrome, VAI score, aspartate
aminotransferase, and necroinflammatory activity were not included in the same multivariate model. Regression analyses were performed using Proc Logistic, Proc Reg, and a subroutine in SAS (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC).26 The baseline features of the 236 patients are shown in Table 1. The majority of our patients were in the overweight to obese range, and nearly one-quarter of them were hypertensive. Diabetes was present in 11% of patients, and IR was present selleckchem in 42.8%. Mean values for total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides were within the normal range. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed in 14.9% of patients. One patient in five had a fibrosis grade ≥3 by Scheuer score, with a high
prevalence of moderate to severe necroinflammation (grade 2-3). Half of the cases had histological evidence of steatosis, though the grading was moderate to severe in only 40 cases (16.9%). The mean VAI score was 1.47. High ALT (P = 0.04), high insulin (P < 0.001), high HOMA score (P < 0.001), presence of arterial hypertension (P = 0.008), high log10 HCV RNA levels (P = 0.01), steatosis (P = 0.001), and severity of necroinflammatory activity (P = 0.04) were associated with higher VAI score in G1 CHC, though only higher HOMA score (P = 0.009), higher log10 HCV RNA levels (P = 0.01), necroinflammatory activity (P = 0.04), and steatosis (P = 0.04) were independent factors on multiple linear regression analysis (Table 2). Considering
the independent link between VAI score and log10 HCV RNA, we investigated the factors associated with log10 HCV RNA. Low BMI (P = 0.04), high triglycerides (P = 0.02), high VAI score (P = 0.01), and severity of necroinflammatory activity (P = 0.07) were associated with higher log10 HCV RNA in G1 CHC, though only a higher VAI score (P = 0.02) was an independent factor on multiple linear regression analysis (Supporting Information). Figure 1 shows the distribution MCE公司 of VAI scores in terms of log10 HCV RNA. The univariate and multivariate comparisons of variables between patients with and without moderate to severe steatosis (≥30%) are reported in Table 3. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the following features were independently linked to moderate to severe steatosis (steatosis ≥30%): IR (OR 3.879, 95% CI 1.727-8.713, P = 0.001), higher VAI score (OR 1.472, 95% CI 1.051-2.062, P = 0.02), and fibrosis (OR 2.255, 95% CI 1.349-3.768, P = 0.002). Replacing in the model VAI with WC and triglycerides, the latter remained significantly associated with steatosis ≥30% (OR 1.008, 95% CI 1.000-1.016, P = 0.04) but not WC (OR 1.035, 95% CI 0.999-1.073, P = 0.06).