The Prevalence of Thrombocytopenia in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis Band C

Background and aims: thrombocytopenia is a relatively common extrahepatic manifestation of hepatitis c,even in theabsence of cirrhosis.also, thrombocytopenia has been reported in chronic hbv infection. the aims of present study wereto evaluate the prevalence of thrombocytopenia in chronic hcv and hbv infection in the absence of cirrhosis and toassess the relationship between hbv and hcv infection and frequency of thrombocytopenia.methods: 438 patients (219 patients with chronic active hepatitis band 123 inactive carriers of hbv and 96 patientswith chronic hcv infection) were enrolled in this study. thrombocytopenia was defined as platelet counts below150,000/.11.results: the prevalence of thrombocytopenia was 17.7% in patients with chronic active hepatitis band 10.6% in hbvinactive carriers, 13.3% in patients with chronic hepatitis c and 5.3% in control group. the prevalence ofthrombocytopenia in chronic hepatitis band c was significantly more than control group.conclusions: these results in iran, with 2-3 million people with chronic hbv infection and around 400,000 with chronichcv infection shows that hbv and hcv infections, even in the absence of cirrhosis, may be two causes ofthrombocytopenia.