Author information
1 Betty and Guy Beatty Center for Integrated Research, Inova Health System, Falls Church, VA, United States; Center for the Study of Chronic Illness and Disability, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United States.
2 Betty and Guy Beatty Center for Integrated Research, Inova Health System, Falls Church, VA, United States.
3 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States.
4 Center for Outcomes Research in Liver Diseases, Washington, DC, United States.
5 Betty and Guy Beatty Center for Integrated Research, Inova Health System, Falls Church, VA, United States; Center for the Study of Chronic Illness and Disability, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United States; Center for Liver Disease, Department of Medicine, Inova Fairfax Medical Campus, Falls Church, VA, United States.
6 Betty and Guy Beatty Center for Integrated Research, Inova Health System, Falls Church, VA, United States; Center for Liver Disease, Department of Medicine, Inova Fairfax Medical Campus, Falls Church, VA, United States. Electronic address: zobair.younossi@inova.org.
Abstract
An important extrahepatic consequence of Hepatitis C is its adverse impact on the central nervous system and cognitive performance. We aimed to determine whether there is a significant relationship between selected neurotransmitters and cytokines and cognitive performance in patients with Chronic Hepatitis C before and after achieving sustained virologic response (SVR). Pre-SVR, elevated kynurenine was associated with increased immediate and delayed visual memory, whereas post-SVR the positive associations are between kynurenine and immediate and delayed verbal memory. TGF-B was consistently negatively associated with both immediate and delayed visual memory pre- and post-SVR. These concomitant changes may have important clinical relevance.