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Cognitive Impairment Associated with HCV in Children

Cognitive impairment was prevalent among a cohort of Egyptian children with early stage hepatitis C virus infection and high levels of endogenous cytokine, according to study data.

“Little is known about how HCV infection affects cognitive function in children. … We aimed in this study to assess the impact of HCV infection on cognitive function in children with normal liver function tests and to investigate the relationship between endogenous [interferon-alfa, interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha] to cognitive function in these children,” the researchers wrote.

In this case-control study, researchers compared 35 children (28 male) with HCV from the outpatient liver clinic at Assiut University Children’s Hospital in Egypt with 23 age-matched healthy controls to determine whether HCV had any impact on cognitive impairment. IFN-a, IL-6 and TNF-a serum levels were measured in every child, along with several other tests.

IL-6 and IFN-a serum levels were higher in patients with HCV compared with the controls. However, there was no significant difference in TNF-a serum levels between both groups. Higher levels of IFN-a were correlated with higher levels of IL-6 (P=.000), but not with TNF-a levels, according to the research.

There were consequential effects on vocabulary, comprehension, the bead memory test, the abstract visual reasoning test, quantitative reasoning test, total short-term memory and intelligence quotients in patients with HCV compared with the controls.

There was a negative correlation observed between IFN-a and abstract visual reasoning test (P=.026), quantitative reasoning test (P=.037), bead memory test (P=.039), total short-term memory (P=.025) and intelligence quotient (P=.007). There also was a negative correlation observed between IL-6 and abstract reasoning test (P=.002), quantitative reasoning test (P=.000) and intelligence quotient (P=.008). No correlation was evident between TNF-a and any of the cognitive functions and tests.

“Children with HCV infection in its early stages showed signs of cognitive impairments, and the memory tasks are the most affected,” the researchers concluded. “There is a significant relationship between endogenous cytokines and cognitive function in children with HCV infection. Further studies will need to define the effect of successful antiviral treatment on cognitive function in these children.”

Disclosure: Relevant financial disclosures were not provided by researchers.