<b>Hepatitis C in the region of Maringá, Paraná State, Brazil: serological and molecular diagnosis, and genotyping</b> - DOI: 10.4025/actascihealthsci.v28i1.1120

Abstract

A retrospective study was carried out in order to detect hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in 4,288 patients by analyzing the results of serological and molecular tests at the Teaching and Research Laboratory on Clinical Analysis of the State University of Maringa, Paraná State, from January 2002 to December 2004. The microparticle enzyme immunoassay (MEIA); the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and reverse hybridization (LiPA) were used to detect the HCV antibodies (anti-HCV), the HCV RNA and the genotypes, respectively. A prevalence of 7.3% of anti-HCV was found. Furthermore, a substantial agreement was observed (Kappa = 0.64; p < 0.05) among the samples, which was DO/CO ratio ≥3.8 by using the MEIA and HCV RNA positivity by RT-PCR. 62.5% of genotype 1; 10.0% of genotype 2; and 27.5% of genotype 3 was identified. Results showed a high prevalence of anti-HCV, probably caused by the presence of patients with a high risk to acquire HCV, as well as an unexpected high frequency of genotype 2