Hepatic steatosis in HIV/hepatitis C coinfection: Prevalence and significance compared with hepatitis C monoinfection

Liver disease in patients coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) has received increasing attention in recent years. Steatosis is accepted as an important contributor to liver disease in patients with HCV, but despite coinfected patients having several reasons to have steatosis, the prevalence and significance of such changes has received scant attention. We examined steatosis in an unselected cohort of coinfected patients and compared its prevalence and predictors with findings in monoinfected patients, where these relationships have been established. We studied 92 coinfected and 372 monoinfected patients undergoing staging liver biopsy. Baseline characteristics of the two groups differed significantly, pointing at different contributors to steatosis in each. Histological inflammation and fibrosis were very similar in the two groups, but steatosis was less in coinfected patients. Steatosis had a univariate association with fibrosis in both groups, but retained a multivariate association only in monoinfected patients. Other multivariate predictors of steatosis in monoinfected patients were the accepted variables of elevated body mass index, male sex, and genotype 3a infection, as well as age. In coinfected patients, however, age was the only multivariate predictor. Undetectable HIV viral load was associated with steatosis in coinfected patients in univariate analysis, but highly active antiretroviral therapy or its individual components could not be initially linked to steatosis. In conclusion, steatosis is less common in HIV/ HCV coinfected patients than similar HCV monoinfected patients, and predictors of steatosis differ between the two groups.