Cryoglobulinemic vasculitis in a patient with chronic hepatitis C infection

Overview

The authors highlight the possible occurrence of extrahepatic manifestations of chronic infection of hepatitis C virus. Many of them are related to locomotive apparatus and sometimes misinterpreted as inflammatory rheumatic disease. One of them is represented by cryoglobulinemic vasculitis. The authors emphasize the necessity of early diagnosis of this infection because its eradication can lead to complete remission of the extrahepatic manifestations. The paper deals with the case report of 43-year-old patient with long history of polyarthralgias, arthritis, myalgias, fatigue and mild fever. She also suffered from Raynaud’s phenomenon and skin manifestations on both upper and lower extremities that were histologically verified as urticarial vasculitis. Immunosuppressive treatment had no appropriate effect. When suspicion for chronic infection of hepatitis C virus was confirmed, antivirus treatment led to a disappearance of subjective and objective manifestations of the disease.

Key words:
hepatitis C virus, extrahepatic manifestation, mixed cryoglobulinemia, cryoglobulinemic vasculitis