HCV-related autoimmune and neoplastic disorders: the HCV syndrome

Mixed cryoglobulinemia

“…The prevalence of MC presents great geographic heterogeneity; the disease is more common in Southern Europe than in Northern Europe or Northern America [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. It is considered to be a rare disorder, however, yet there are no adequate epidemiological studies regarding its overall prevalence.…”

“…For the same reasons, the clinical pattern of the MC syndrome may vary largely among patients series referred to different tertiary care facilities [3,6,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14] (Fig. 3).…”

“…arthralgias-and by a series of pathological conditions, including chronic hepatitis, membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN), peripheral neuropathy, skin ulcers, diffuse vasculitis, and, less frequently, by lymphatic and hepatic malignancies [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. The clinical pattern of cryoglobulinemic vasculitis is comparable in patients with type II or type III MC [3].…”

“…This is an in vitro phenomenon ( Fig. 1), the actual mechanism(s) of cryoprecipitation remains obscure, it could be secondary to intrinsic characteristics of both mono-and polyclonal immunoglobulin (Ig) components, it can be caused as well by the interaction among single components of the cryoprecipitate [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

“…Type I cryoglobulinemia is almost invariably associated with well-known hematological disorders and is frequently asymptomatic per se; similarly, circulating mixed cryoglobulins are commonly detected in a great number of infectious or systemic disorders [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. On the contrary, 'essential' MC represents a distinct disorder [3][4][5][6], which can be classified among systemic vasculitides [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”