Performance of rapid test for antibodies to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) in hemodialysis patients and kidney transplant recipients.

Rapid tests (RT) have been widely used for screening of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in general population, but its performance in hemodialysis (HD) patients and mainly in kidney-transplant recipients (RTx) is less known. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of RT for detection of anti-HCV in HD and RTx patients. Patients were prospectively included subdivided in four groups according to the positivity for anti-HCV detected by conventional serology: (1) HD patients anti-HCV +, (2) HD patients anti-HCV -, (3) RTx patients anti-HCV +, and (4) RTx patients anti-HCV -.

Progression of liver fibrosis in monoinfected patients by hepatitis C virus and coinfected by HCV and human immunodeficiency virus.

Context: The progression of liver fibrosis in patients coinfected by hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus (HCV/HIV) has been increasingly studied in the past decade. Studies made before the highly active antiretroviral therapy suggest that HIV can change the natural history of the HCV infection, leading to a faster progression of the liver fibrosis.

Objective: To evaluate and compare the fibrosis progression in two groups of patients (HCV/HIV coinfected and HCV monoinfected)

Methods: Seventy patients HCV monoinfected and 26 patients HCV/HIV coinfected who had not undertaken HCV treatment and were submitted to serial percutaneous liver biopsies were retrospectively evaluated.