Advanced Care for Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes the liver to become inflamed.

Inflammation makes it difficult for your liver to work properly. This means your liver might not be able to remove toxins from your body, digest food, or store nutrients as it should.

What Causes Hepatitis C?

A virus causes hepatitis C. It spreads from one person to another through contact with infected blood.

Causes of infection can include:

• Sharing needles
• Using unclean needles or instruments for piercings or tattoos
• Having unprotected sex with an infected person
• Sharing razors with an infected person
• Passed down from birth
• Blood transfusions before the discovery of hepatitis C in 1989

Hepatitis C infection can be either:

• Acute or sudden. Symptoms come on quickly and go away with or without treatment.
• Chronic. Damage to your liver occurs over a long period of time.

Hepatitis C Symptoms, Testing, and Diagnosis

Many people who have acute or chronic hepatitis C don't even know they have it. For many patients, symptoms occur only when complications form.

About 2.4 million adults in the United States have hepatitis C, half of whom don't know they have the infection. Because of this, doctors now urge all adults to have a hepatitis C screening at least once in their lifetime.

Doctors suspect a hepatitis C infection when you have certain symptoms that point to liver damage, such as:

• Fatigue
• Pain in the joints
• Itching
• Nausea or vomiting
• Fever
• Dark-colored urine
• Jaundice, or yellowing of the skin or eyes

Doctors diagnose hepatitis C with a blood test. There is more than one type, or strain, of the hepatitis C virus. Your doctor might use a genotype blood test to see which strain you have.

Knowing which strain you have helps your doctor decide the type of hepatitis C treatment that is best for you.

Hepatitis C Treatment

Treating hepatitis C can clear the virus from your body and prevent liver damage and liver cancer.

Treatment can include taking antiviral drugs for as few as eight weeks and as many as six months.

Your doctor will test your blood after you finish treatment. If there's no virus in your blood three months after completing treatment, your system has cleared the hepatitis C infection.

Our experts at the UPMC Center for Liver Care take part in clinical trials that test new antiviral medications to treat hepatitis C.

Complications of Hepatitis C

Left untreated, hepatitis C can damage your liver.

Complications include cirrhosis and liver failure, or end-stage liver disease. Some people with hepatitis C are more likely to get liver cancer.

If you have a hepatitis C infection, your doctor might order tests to see if the infection has caused liver damage.

These tests include:

• Liver function tests, or blood tests that show how your liver is working.
• Liver biopsy, a tissue sample that doctors use to check for damage.
• Ultrasound elastography (FibroScan®), an imaging test that shows the stiffness of, and blood flow in, the liver.

Our liver doctors, known as hepatologists, are experts in treating hepatitis C and its complications.

Contact the UPMC Center for Liver Care

To make an appointment or get a referral for advanced hepatitis C care, you can:

• Call 1-412-647-1170.