AI Article Synopsis

  • End-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients on hemodialysis have a higher risk of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, making early diagnosis crucial for treatment and prevention of spread.
  • This study assessed the prevalence of HCV in ESRD patients in central Greece using a more sensitive HCV-RNA test (TMA) compared to the traditional anti-HCV ELISA test.
  • Results showed that 36% of the 366 patients tested positive for HCV, with the TMA test identifying additional cases that ELISA missed, particularly highlighting genotype 3a among the infected.

Article Abstract

Background: End-stage renal disease patients (ESRD) on maintenance hemodialysis (HD) are at increased risk of acquiring hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. An early and accurate diagnosis of HCV infection is important for the prevention of viral transmission and the management of ESRD patients on HD but conventional ELISA and PCR have often failed to reveal active HCV infection.

Objectives: This study evaluated the prevalence of HCV infection in ESRD patients from all HD units in central Greece using a sensitive HCV-RNA transcription mediated amplification (TMA) assay and compared its sensitivity with that of anti-HCV ELISA.

Study Design: Anti-HCV antibody (third generation ELISA), HCV-RNA (TMA) and HCV genotypes (HCV TMA-LiPA) were determined in 366 ESRD Greek patients.

Results: In total, 132 (36%) ESRD patients were HCV positive by ELISA or TMA; 44 by TMA alone, 16 by ELISA alone and 72 positive by both assays. More than half of the viraemic patients had genotype 3a.

Conclusions: HCV-RNA (TMA) assay appears to increase the accuracy in the diagnosis of HCV infection in HD patients compared to the anti-HCV ELISA and could serve as an additional screening tool in these patients.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcv.2005.05.007DOI Listing

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