damage and eventually lysis. The serum concentration of the third component of complement, C3, closely reflects the total complement activity. Individuals affected by ho- mozygous C3 deficiency suffer from recurrent pyogenic infections such as pneumonia, septicemia, otitis media, and meningitis, and the absence of C3 is frequently lethal. This study aims to find out if there is any relation between chronic hepatitis C infection and levels of C3 in serum. Methods: The study included 132 chronic hepatitis C pa- tients diagnosed as per American Association for Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) practice guidelines. Control groups comprised of 81 healthy blood donors who did not have any history of liver disorders. C3 levels in serum were deter- mined utilizing commercially available kit. Results: Out of 132 chronic hepatitis C patients included, 81 were males and 51 were females with mean ageÆ S.D. of 35.11Æ11.40. C3 level of the healthy group was 88.5Æ25.3 mg/dl whereas the C3 level of the chronic hepatitis C group was 56Æ18 mg/dl and was statistically significant (P <0.0005) indicating that in HCV infection there is low- ering of complement system C3 components. Conclusion: The significant difference between the chronic hepatitis C patient and healthy control C3 level in- dicates need for including it as one of the factors that should be monitored during chronic hepatitis C infection and treatment. Corresponding author. Premashis Kar. E-mail: premashishkar@gmail.com PREVALENCE OF INSULIN RESISTANCE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH VIROLOGIC RESPONSE RATE IN GENOTYPE 3 HCV PATIENTS Sreejith Venugoapal, Vivek Anand Saraswat, Sushil Gupta Department of Gastroenterology, SGPGI, Lucknow, India Background and Aim: Changes in carbohydrate metabo- lism have been reported in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infec- tion, resulting in insulin resistance and accelerated progression of hepatic fibrosis. Only a few studies have looked at the association of insulin resistance with viro- logic response in genotype 3 HCV infection. Hence a pro- spective study was conducted to determine prevalence of insulin resistance in genotype 3 HCV and it's the relation- ship between rapid virologic response (RVR). Methods: Forty three consecutive, non-diabetic patients with genotype 3 HCV were studied. Baseline parameters in- cluding Homeostatic model assessment –Insulin Resis- tance (HOMA-IR) values were recorded. HOMA-IR value of $3 was considered abnormal. All patients were given weight based pegylated interferon alfa 2 b and ribavirin. Vi- rologic responses were assessed at 4, 12 and 24 weeks. Fif- teen healthy volunteers without diabetes, obesity or any hepatic illness were included as controls. For comparing the means chi square test of independence was used for cat- egorical variables and students t-test for continuous vari- able. Results: HCV patients had a mean age of 38.7Æ 11.9 years. Twenty seven of 43 (62.7%) patients were women. Age and gender distribution were similar in patients and controls. Rapid virologic response (RVR) was achieved in 30/43 (68.7%) patients. Baseline IR was significantly higher in pa- tients with HCV when compared with controls (3.2 Æ 1.9 vs 1.9 Æ 0.8; P =0.01). RVR was more often seen in patients without IR (P =0.02). Conclusion: Baseline IR was present in two thirds of pa- tients with HCV genotype 3. HOMA IR values were signif- icantly higher in HCV patients at baseline when compared to controls. There was significant correlation between pres- ence of IR and absence of RVR. Further studies are needed to determine whether IR adversely affects SVR rates and whether improving HOMA-IR will improve virologic re- sponse rates. Corresponding author. Sreejith Venugoapal. E-mail: drsreejithvenugopal@gmail.com ASSOCIATION OF IL28B POLYMORPHISM WITH HCV INFECTED PATIENTS FROM SOUTH INDIA Rahamathulla Syed, 1 Srivatsan Kunnavakkanvinjimuri, 1 Raju Nagarapu, 1 Vishnu Priya Satti, 2 Aejaz Habeeb Mohammed, 1 Mohammed Nanne Khaja 1 1 Center for Liver Research and Diagnostics, Deccan College of Medical Sciences and Allied Hospitals, Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, 2 Department of Genetics, Osmania University, Tarnaka, Hyderabad-500 007, Andhra Pradesh, India Background and Aims: Hepatitis C is a global health problem and represents a major cause of liver disease and socioeconomic burden. Effective antiviral therapy may prevent these complications, but the current treat- ment for patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection does not produce sustained virologic response. A number of host and viral factors have been associated with treatment outcomes. Recent Genome wide Associa- tion studies have revealed strong association of IL28B to Sustained Viral Response (SVR) and treatment progno- sis. The management of HCV infection is becoming more personalized and prediction of treatment response is pivotal to it. However, it is not clear which SNP is most informative as all SNPs show certain amount of disequilibrium. Difference between ethnicity and treat- ment response rates suggest a key role of host genetics. Here we have focused on the prevalence of two SNPs rs12989760 and rs8099917, in chronic HCV infected JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HEPATOLOGY Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hepatology | March 2013 | Vol. 3 | No. 1S | S43–S74 S67 Viral Hepatitis