Hepatitis C Patients Experience Moderate Rates Of Fibromyalgia.

2001 JUL 26 - (NewsRx Network) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Fibromyalgia is hard to diagnose, but researchers in Ireland have determined patients infected with hepatitis C virus may be at moderate risk for developing the disease.

The researchers, who work at Mater Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, based their conclusion on a study of 77 HCV patients, more than three-fourths of whom were female, for evidence of anxiety, depression and fibromyalgia.

According to C. Goulding and colleagues, more than half of the patients acquired HCV infections after receiving contaminated anti-D immunoglobulin, a blood product commonly administered to Rh-negative women after delivering Rh-positive infants in order to prevent problems in future pregnancies. Other individuals acquired HCV through intravenous drug use or blood transfusions.

With the use of standard diagnostic guidelines, Goulding's group identified four patients meeting the criteria for fibromyalgia, and all had become infected with HCV after receiving anti-D.

Researchers assessed the number of tender points, areas of the body that experience pain with applied pressure, in each patient. "The mean number offender points in anti-D patients was 5.0 (+ or -] 4.07 compared with 2.8 [+ or -] 2.7 in controls and 2.5 [+ or -] 2.2 in intravenous drug ...