Assessment of HCV viral load, genotype, liver biomarkers and clinical symptoms: Developing a mathematical model for prediction of HCV load (original) (raw)
Related papers
Hepatitis C has 3% of the global disease burden that remains endemic in many regions of the world. According to a general statistical survey it has approximately 5.3% seroprevalence in Pakistan. HCV is persistent and silent disease thus making the primary diagnosis complicated. Occasionally HCV positive population could not be diagnosed by routine HCV antibody testing therefore requires molecular diagnosis. This study is aimed to determine the prevalence of HCV and to estimate the HCV viral load by quantitative analysis among different patient groups of District Gujrat, Pakistan. A total of 597 samples were collected from clinically diagnosed liver patients that were categorized into three age groups: 1) up to 25 years; 2) 26 -50 years 3) above 50 years. All samples were subjected to real time PCR for determination and quantification of HCV RNA. Activity of liver aminotransferases was measured. The overall prevalence of HCV-RNA was 73.87%. Females had slightly higher HCV prevalence where it is 74.06% while 73.45% in males. Highest prevalence of active HCV infection was found in age group 26 -50. In addition, liver function tests showed that 28.12% HCV-positive patients do not have elevated ALT level whereas 32.65% did not show elevated AST levels. It may be assumed that there is not a significant relationship between increased viral load and liver amino transferases. The study concluded a significantly higher rate of HCV infection in young population. Moreover screening with antibody and liver function tests alone do not exclude the possibility of HCV infection.
Kirkuk University Journal-Scientific Studies
The study aimed at detection of HCV load and genotypes in acute and chronic HCV patients. A cross sectional study was carried out in Kirkuk city from 15 th of March 2017 to 15 th of November 2017. The number of hepatitis patient understudy were 62 hepatitis C (27 acute and 35 chronic) whose ages were between 20-75 years old. These patients admitted to Hepatology and Gastroenterology centers of Kirkuk. The control group who were matched to the patients studied, included 30 individuals who admitted to blood bank for blood donation. The study showed that no statistical differences between acute and chronic HCV concerning their viral load and the highest viral load mean was found in acute HCV patients (1162.6 v.s 1234.3) IU/ml. In the current study, the high rates of chronic and acute HCV patients were infected by genotype 4 of HCV (68.69% and 63.63% respectively) and the lowest rate were genotype 1a. The study showed that there was a highly significant difference between viral loads of acute and chronic HCV patients as regarding genotype 1a (1298.7 v.s. 1155.4 IU/ml), (P: 0.001), the study showed a significant difference between viral loads of acute and chronic HCV patients concerning genotype 4 and a significant relation of viral loads of acute HCV infection with genotype 1a and genotype 4. It was concluded that the was no difference HCV load in acute and chronic infection and genotype 4 as the most frequent HCV genotype in Kirkuk
Hepatitis C viral load does not predict disease outcome: going beyond numbers
Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo, 2002
The analysis of 58 patients with chronic hepatitis C without cirrhosis and treated with interferon-alpha demonstrated that hepatitis C viral (HCV) load does not correlate with the histological evolution of the disease (p = 0.6559 for architectural alterations and p = 0.6271 for the histological activity index). Therefore, the use of viral RNA quantification as an evolutive predictor or determinant of the severity of hepatitis C is incorrect and of relative value. A review of the literature provided fundamental and interdependent HCV (genotype, heterogeneity and mutants, specific proteins), host (sex, age, weight, etc) and treatment variables (dosage, time of treatment, type of interferon) within the broader context of viral kinetics, interferon-mediated immunological response (in addition to natural immunity against HCV) and the role of interferon as a modulator of fibrogenesis. Therefore, viral load implies much more than numbers and the correct interpretation of these data should consider a broader context depending on multiple factors that are more complex than the simple value obtained upon quantification.
Research in Virology, 1995
Molecular methods for the absolute quantitation of nucleic acids present in biological samples have recently been developed and applied in basic and in medical virology; these studies indicated that competitive polymerase chain reaction (PCRI and competitive reverse transcription PCR (CRT-PCR)-based methodologies are currently the methods of choice for quantifying DNA and RNA species present in clinical samples at low concentration. Recently, quantitative molecular techniques were developed to study the hepatitis C virus (HCV) pathogenic potential, the natural history of HCVinfected patients and the efficiency of antiviral therapies in real time. The pilot study reported here was carried out using a CRT-PCR application for the direct quantitation of HCV RNA molecules in plasma samples of infected individuals which was recently developed in our laboratory. Although sharp individual variability of viral load was documented in this study, the mean HCV RNA copy number detected in samples from untreated HCV-infected patients with various clinical conditions (chronic active hepatitis, cirrhosis, cryoglobulinaemia and chronic hepatitis) was substantially similar, with only one exception: in samples from patients tested positive for anti-liver-kidney microsomal (anti-LKMI) auto-antibodies, a significantly lower HCV viraemia level was revealed. Additionally, HCV viraemia was monitored in four patients with sustained biochemical and histological response (at least 12 months) following interferon-cl discontinuation.
Prediction of the hepatitis C viremia using immunoassay data and clinical expertise
Annals of hepatology
Detection of anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) antibodies may yield a high frequency of false-positive results in people at low risk. To date, no clinical rule had been developed to predict viremia in HCV-seropositive patients. Therefore, we aimed to generate a prediction rule on the basis of clinical and serologic data, which can be used in outpatient care. We selected 114 seropositive patients without antiviral treatment or hepatitis B coinfection. Subsequently we identified independent predictors of the hepatitis C viremia by logistic regression and selected the quantitative value of the screening test for anti-HCV antibodies with the best performance in detecting viremia. Then, we combined clinical and serologic data to generate different prediction rules. Ratio of immunoassay signal strength of the sample to cut-off (S/CO) >15 had accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV) and positive likelihood ratio (LR+) of 84%, 83%, and 3.7; respectively. The rule compounded of the antec...
Novel Research in Microbiology Journal, 2021
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the blood transmitted hepatitis viruses. HCV infections have been identified as major causes of chronic hepatic diseases, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The aims of the current study were to determine the HCV viral load between 35 hepatitis C patients in Minia governorate, Egypt, and to assess association of the viral load with abnormal liver functions including; Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), prothrombin activity and platelet count. In addition to assessing if there are any risk factors associated with the population group, sex, age and other factors. About 35 blood samples were collected from hepatitis C patients randomly selected from the outpatient clinic at the Viral Hepatitis Management Center, Minia governorate, Egypt; including males and females of different ages. Viral load was determined using Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). All relevant information was collected from each patient including personal and clinical data. Current results showed that 68.60 % of the samples were from males and 31.4 % were from females, and most of them aged between 51 and 70 years. Approximately 11 (31.4 %) of the HCV patients had viral loads of <106, 12 (34.3 %) recorded viral loads of <105, and about 12 cases (34.3 %) had a viral load of < 104. HCV infection has been associated with 4 risk factors representing high HCV transmission routes including; dental intervention (80.0 %), history of hospital admission (65.7 %), previous surgeries (57.1 %) and family history of HCV (48.6 %). However, history of Schistosomiasis and blood-transfusion showed low association with HCV infection; recording (31.4 %) and (22.9 %), respectively.
Lack of association between type of hepatitis C virus, serum load and severity of liver disease
Journal of Viral Hepatitis, 1996
Chronic infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) may lead to a variety of hepatic lesions from benign inflammation to liver cancer, but the relationships between infection and development of liver disease are poorly understood. To assess whether virus type and load are of pathogenetic importance, 1 9 7 Italian carriers with various hepatic lesions were investigated consecutively. Of these, 1 8 7 (95'%1) patients had serum HCV RNA, by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with a median level of 1003 x lo3 genomic equivalents ml-' according to the branched-DNA assay (b-DNA). One hundred and seven patients (54%) had serotype 1 , 2 2 (1 1%) had serotype 2 , 9 (5%) had serotype 3, 1 7 (9%) had mixed serotypes and 4 2 (21%) had no specified serotype. One hundred and thirty four patients were also tested for genotype. The genotype distribution was as follows: 1 7 (1 3%) had genotype l a : 67 (50%) l b ; 29 (22%) 2a; 12 (9%) 3a; 3 (2%) had genotype 1 not classified (NC): 3 (2%) had genotype 2 NC: 2 (1.4%) had genotype 4 and 1 (1%) had mixed genotype l a + 3a. No virus type was associated with any particular histological diagnosis and all were equally distributed between progressive and non-progressive liver disease groups. Serum HCV-RNA levels were similar in the liver diseases groups. By analogy to hepatitis B, there was no direct correlation between type and level of viraemia and the severity of the underlying liver damage. Abbreviations: RT-PCR. reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction: ALT. alanine amhotransferase: b-DNA, branched-DNA: HCVAb. hepatitis C virus antibody: HIVAb. human immunodeficiency virus antibody: HBeAb. hepatitis Be Antibody: EIA. enzyme immunoassay: LiPa. line probe assay: DEIA. DNA enzyme immunoassay Correspondence: Professor Massimo Colombo,