Impact of hepatitis C sustained viral response on cardiovascular diseases: a meta-analysis.

Background: Hepatitis C virus-infected patients are found to have increased risks of cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related morbidity and mortality. However, the effect of treatment on cardiovascular risk remains unknown. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effect of Sustained Virologic Response (SVR) on cardiovascular outcome in chronic HCV-infected patients. Methods: A systematic review was conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane databases from inception through November 2018 to identify studies that assessed the effect of SVR on CVDs. Effect estimates from the individual study were extracted and combined using random-effect, generic inverse variance method of DerSimonian and Laird. Results: Seven cohort studies with a total of 53,841 HCV-infected patients with average follow-up time of 5 years were enrolled. When compared with HCV-infected patients who do not achieve SVR, patients with SVR have a reduced risk of overall CVDs with the pooled hazard ratio of 0.76 (95% confidence interval 0.61-0.94). Egger's regression asymmetry test was performed and showed no publication bias. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates a significant association between SVR after HCV treatment and reduced risk of overall CVDs.