In total, 185 of 1,400 (13%) patients were later excluded (Fig. 1), including 45 SVR patients, who, although indicated on our treatment database to be SVRs, BMN 673 were discovered to have had at least one PCR-positive test post-treatment recorded in the national HCV diagnosis database (N.B. in a sensitivity analysis, whereby these 45 patients were retained in the cohort; the interpretation of our results did not change; see Discussion). Thus, the number of patients considered in our final analyses was 1,215. Furthermore, to treatment patients, persons diagnosed with HCV antibodies in Scotland between January 1, 1996 and December 31, 2008, who have subsequently been tested

at least once for viral RNA (but have never tested positive) and have no record of an IFN-based treatment episode in Scotland (as determined from the HCV clinical database) were, in these analyses, considered to be spontaneous resolvers of HCV (N = 3,690). The two outcomes of primary interest were LRM and liver-related hospital episodes. Hospital episodes were used as a measure of morbidity; thus,

we use “morbidity” and “hospital episodes” interchangeably. A hospital episode is defined as an unbroken period spent as an inpatient, regardless of change in consultant, significant facility, speciality, and/or hospital. As previously described by McDonald et al.,4, 5 a liver-related death or hospital episode was defined on the basis

of International www.selleckchem.com/products/Adriamycin.html Classification of Disease (ICD)-9 or -10 codes (Table 1. Hospital episodes were considered to be liver-related under two scenarios, on the basis of either (1) the main discharge code(s) only (i.e., if a liver-related discharge code was present in the main position of any of the admissions underlying the episode) or (2) all discharge codes (i.e., if a liver-related discharge code was present in either the main or supplementary position of any of the admissions underlying the episode). The primary http://www.selleck.co.jp/products/MLN-2238.html exposure variable of interest for treatment patients was a SVR (SVR is the optimum virological outcome of treatment). SVR (and non-SVR) was defined as PCR negative (versus PCR positive) for viral RNA at least 6 months after termination of treatment. Other exposure variables considered in these analyses were the following: gender, age at study entry, ethnicity, ever injected drugs, genotype, diagnosed cirrhotic at study entry, alcohol-related hospitalization, and mean post-treatment alanine aminotransferase (ALT). A diagnosis of cirrhosis was made on the basis of one or more of the following: (1) liver biopsy, (2) radiology, (3) endoscopy, (4) laboratory tests, and (5) clinical examination. Patients’ mean post-treatment ALT was calculated from values obtained 0-6 months after terminating therapy. Alcohol-related hospital episodes were used as a proxy indicator of excessive alcohol consumption.