Is hepatitis C virus infection a risk factor for panel-reactive antibody positivity?

Patients with high levels of panel-reactive antibody (PRA) represent an increasingly large group in the waiting lists for cadaveric renal transplantation. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been found to be associated with a high prevalence of positivity of autoimmune serological tests. We planned this study to evaluate the effect of HCV positivity on the PRA levels in our hemodialysis (HD) patients. We included 38 HCV-infected (group I: 20 male, 18 female patients, mean duration of HD 73.6 +/- 50.6 months) and 43 hepatitis marker-negative (group II: 23 male, 20 female patients, mean duration of HD 22.2 +/- 22.4 months) HD patients. The PRA positivity ratio and number of transfusions were not significantly higher in group I than in group II (PRA ABC; 28.9%, 19.4, P > 0.05, PRA DR; 21.8%, 20.9, P > 0.05, respectively, and blood transfusions 7.0 +/- 5.7, 6.6 +/- 5.2, respectively, P = 0.06). HD duration correlated significantly with PRA positivity in our patients (PRA-positive patients: 56.1 +/- 57.9 months, PRA-negative patients: 43.3 +/- 41.9 months, P = 0.021). In conclusion, HD duration was found to be the main factor affecting PRA sensitivity independently of HCV positivity and blood transfusion.