. Background and objectives.  Virus hepatitis may lead to nephropathy as one of its multiple extrahepatic manifestations. Proteinuria by dipstick, a simple test in practice, is a useful and cardinal sign of underlying renal abnormalities. The aim of this study was to elucidate the impact of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and/or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections on the occurrence of proteinuria amongst adults. Designandsetting.  A prospective, cross‐sectional, community‐based study was conducted in an HBV/HCV endemic area of southern Taiwan. Eligible subjects aged 40–65 years (n = 9934) underwent testing of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), HCV antibody (anti‐HCV) and other related biochemical profiles. Urinalysis with repeated dipstick for proteinuria detection was performed. Results.  Anti‐HCV‐positive rate amongst proteinuria subjects was significantly higher than nonproteinuria subjects (9.6% vs. 6.2%, P < 0.001). By contrast, HBsAg‐positive rate did not differ between subjects with and without proteinuria (13.0% vs. 13.8%, P = 0.57). Prevalence of proteinuria amongst anti‐HCV‐positive subjects (10.2%) was significantly higher than that in HBsAg‐positive subjects (6.4%, P =0.004) and in HBsAg‐negative or anti‐HCV‐negative subjects (7.0%, P = 0.004). The difference persisted even after excluding diabetics. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that diabetes was the most important significant factor associated with proteinuria, followed by hypertension, anti‐HCV seropositivity, body mass index, age and triglyceride levels. Conclusion.  We demonstrated the significant association between proteinuria and HCV, but not HBV, infection in this HBV/HCV‐endemic area.

Color Doppler US is capable of demonstrating the typical findings of a central feeding artery and stellate vascular pattern in many cases of FNH.

Although there is a statistically significant positive correlation between intrarenal RI and age, the correlation is weak. This suggests that the influence of age on RI measurement is small and may be of no clinical importance.