Resumo

ARUS SOLER, Enrique. Natural history of HCV infection. Rev cubana med [online]. 2006, vol.45, n.1. ISSN 0034-7523.

The acute stage of infection goes by inadvertently in most of the patients. The disease has a marked trend of evolution towards chronicity and it evolves very slowly. The chronic persistence of the virus ranges from 54 to 86 % of the cases. The evolution towards liver cirrhosis fluctuates between 2.6 and 42 % of the cases, depending on the study method used to evaluate the natural history. The youngest patients at the moment of infection and the females had the lowest progression rates. The coinfection with HIVand HBV favor a rapid progression. Some associated diseases as the non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, type II diabetes mellitus, obesity, and the increase of the iron deposit in the liver have also been related to a rapid progression. Alcoholism plays an important role on accelerating the course of the disease to liver cirrhosis and to hepatocellular carcinoma. The transfusion-acquired infection has been considered as a fibrosis-accelerating factor.

Palavras-chave : Hepatitis C; natural history; fibrosis.