Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the leading causes of chronic liver disease worldwide. It
poses a serious health risk. Liver cirrhosis of is also linked to a variety of cardiovascular abnormalities.
Nowadays, direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) for hepatitis C have the potential to reduce
this disease burden, but their potential long-term cardiac effects are unknown. The aim of this
work was to see how direct-acting antivirals affect the cardiac functions of naive Egyptians
with chronic hepatitis C.
The 90 treatment-naive adult patients with chronic hepatitis C were divided into two groups
(cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic). Only two patients within the non-cirrhotic group and a patient
among cirrhotic patients showed nonspecific ST segment changes which remained unchanged
after treatments. Two non-cirrhotic patients and four cirrhotic patients showed T wave inversion,
which remained static post treatment, but without significant difference in corrected QT
interval before & after treatment between groups.