After propensity score matching of patients in the two cohorts who showed no differences in demographic factors, viral hepatitis B, viral hepatitis C, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, congestive heart failure, hyperlipidemia, and concomitant use of BBs, statin, metformin, aspirin, NSAID, and COX-2, 4,376 patients (2,188 patients in each cohort) were eligible for comparison (Figure 1). This evidence concerns the gene PTGS2 and hepatitis C virus infection.