The evaluated parameters were those whose differences among patients with chronic hepatitis and those with liver cirrosis were lower than 0,1 (age, alcohol abuse, CD4 T cell count at inclusion, TNF -238 and IL-10 -592 polymorphism) in the bivariate analysis and those other with possible clinical significance (CD4 T cell count at diagnosis of HIV infection) (Table 5). Here, TNF is linked to chronic hepatitis.