[Prevalence of viral hepatitis type C in blood donors in Peru 2016 - 2017].

Objectives: Knowing the current prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection has taken great importance nowdays due to the new advances in the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection in which the new direct-acting antivirals have demonstrated a high rate of sustained viral response.

Materials And Methods: This is a descriptive study based on the detection of anti VHC in the blood banks of “Ministerio de Salud del Perú†according to the information obtained from “Programa Nacional de Hemoterapia y Bancos de Sangre†(PRONAHEBAS).

Results: In our study, the prevalence of anti-hepatitis C antibodies in blood donors nationwide was 0.

Randomized clinical trial to evaluate safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma use among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 (PERUCONPLASMA): a structured summary of a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: The general objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that administration of convalescent plasma from donors with previous diagnosis of severe COVID-19 pneumonia is safe and associated with a decrease in all-cause in-hospital mortality among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 at 30 days in comparison with standard treatment alone. The secondary objectives are as follows: (1) to assess the efficacy of convalescent plasma to reduce the length of hospitalization, (2) to assess the efficacy of convalescent plasma to reduce the length of ICU stay, and (3) to assess the efficacy of convalescent plasma on reducing the requirement of invasive mechanical ventilation or ICU stay.

Trial Design: PERUCONPLASMA is a IIb phase open label, randomized, superiority clinical trial with 1:1 allocation taking place in real life routine clinical practice at public hospitals in Lima, Peru.

[Erythrocytosis associated with hepatocellular carcinoma. Two case reports].

Erythrocytosis is a well-known paraneoplastic syndrome of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), occurring in 1% of cases of this neoplasm. This report describes two HCC patients who manifested erythrocytosis in their clinical report. Similar features found in both patients were a large tumour burden, high concentration of hemoglobin and hematocrit, increased levels of serum alphafetoprotein (AFP) and positive HBsAg.