Pitfalls in measuring temporal trends for late diagnosis of viral hepatitis.

We separated the cohort into the following 4 groups according to the timing and presence of complications: (1) patients with a complication within ±6 months of HCV diagnosis, termed "very late diagnosis"; (2) patients with a complication 6 months to 2 years after HCV diagnosis, termed "late diagnosis"; (3) patients with a complication >2 years after HCV diagnosis; and (4) patients who did not reach a complication during the observation period. Then, for each year, the proportion of those experiencing a complication who also had a very late diagnosis is computed and plotted.[[6]] This was repeated for those experiencing a late diagnosis and for those experiencing neither a late nor very late diagnosis. 2 Very late and late diagnosis of HCV infection among those with a complication, by year of infection diagnosis. [Extracted from the article]