Do statins reduce hepatitis C RNA titers during routine clinical use?

Table 1 Patient characteristics

Variables	Median (range)			P-value
	Group A (n = 50)	Group B (n = 49)	Group C (n = 102)	All	Group A vs Group B	Group A vs Group C
Gender (male/female)	50/0	49/0	100/2	0.38
Race (white/black/other/unknown)	15/28/0/7	11/31/0/7	18/64/0/20	0.74
Ethnicity (hispanic/non-hispanic/unknown)	2/44/4	1/38/3	3/78/21	0.15
Prior interferon-alpha therapy (%)	14	8	3	0.042	0.32	0.015
HCV genotype (1/2/3/not-typed)	34/4/1/1	32/5/0/0	70/5/0/0	0.26
Age (yr)	56 (47-87)	55 (42-80)	56 (41-83)	0.60
Body mass index	29.1 (18.9-47.8)	28.1 (20.8-43.6)	26.8 (17.1-41.8)	0.0021	0.24	0.001
Albumin (g/dL)	4 (3-5)	4 (3-4)	4 (2-5)	0.37
ALT (U/L)	46 (11-388)	40 (12-207)	53 (15-345)	0.09	0.19	0.035
AST (U/L)	37 (18-199)	36 (16-136)	53 (22-304)	< 0.0001	0.24	0.002
Alkaline phosphatase (U/L)	74 (28-215)	79 (44-162)	77 (40-1106)	0.23
Total bilirubin (mg/dL)	0 (0-2)	0 (0-1)	0 (0-2)	0.01	0.40	0.060
Creatinine (mg/dL)	1 (0-1)	1 (0-1)	1 (0-2)	0.24
International normalized ratio	1 (0-2)	0 (0-1)	1 (0-3)	0.48
Platelets (× 1000/mL)	242 (129-758)	242 (122-450)	208 (55-606)	0.020	0.97	0.024
Total cholesterol (mg/dL)	177 (110-304)	187 (71-277)	161 (75-260)	0.0002	0.21	0.038
HDL cholesterol (mg/dL)	40 (25-70)	42 (26-69)	41 (21-110)	0.16
LDL cholesterol (mg/dL)	114 (45-222)	122 (64-187)	93 (22-173)	< 0.0001	0.29	0.006
Triglycerides (mg/dL)	120 (35-384)	114 (44-443)	105 (39-467)	0.31

Group A: Cases (HCV PCR+ with concomitant statin exposure); Group B: Dyslipidemic control (HCV PCR+ with non-coincident statin exposure); Group C: Unexposed control (HCV PCR+, no statin exposure).