الفهرس 
Introduction and RationaleOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This study was carried out as a case-control study to assess the correlation between IL-8 and the pruritus score in HCV-related cirrhosis. Two groups were recruited into the study; 60 patients of HCV-related cirrhosis with different severity according to Child-Pugh classification and 30 healthy control subjects matching age and gender the study group.
The frequency of male patients was higher than the female patients in both groups without significant difference (58.3% versus 41.7% and 56.7% versus 43.3%, in HCV and control groups, respectively), both groups were matched regarding gender (p>0.05). The mean age of HCV group was matching the control group without statistically significant difference (52.5±9.9 years versus 51.1±8.2 years, respectively) (p>0.05).
Serum levels of albumin and bilirubin were measured. Ascites was present in 30% of the studied patients, while encephalopathy was occurred in 3.3% of the patients. According to Child-Pugh classification, 20 patients of Child A, 20 patients of Child B and 20 patients of Child C were enrolled into the study.
There was significantly higher pruritus score in Child C patients in comparison to Child A and B (10.72±2.83 versus 8.35±3.48 and 8.77±2.98, respectively) (p<0.05).
There was significantly mean levels of IL-8 in HCV patients in comparison to healthy control (150.8±40.9 versus 35.1±5.4, respectively) (p<0.0001).
There were significantly higher mean levels of IL-8 in Child C patients versus Child B patients versus Child A patients (181.6±13.8 versus 156.3±17.4 and 84.3±29.1, respectively) (p<0.0001).
The optimal cutoff point of IL-8 to detect the presence of HCV-related cirrhosis was measured (>42 pg/dl) with a sensitivity of 95.8%, specificity of 100%, positive predicted value (+PV) of 100% and negative predicted value (-PV) of 90.9%.