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Beta-thalassaemia and the prevalence of HCV viraemia
I Spiliopoulou1, A Arvaniti, F Kolonitsiou
1Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Patras, Greece.
Twenty-four serum samples from multitransfused patients with beta-thalassaemia major and fourteen positive control samples, (eight haemodialysis patients and six sporadic cases of HCV infection) were selected as anti-HCV-positives by a second-generation ELISA, a confirmatory test (Abbott), and an immunoblot assay (INNO-LIA HCV AbIII, Omicron Medical). Subsequently, by means of the nested polymerase chain reaction technique (PCR), using the set of PT1-4 primers, the RNA of the virus was detected in a total of 29 samples: 22 out of 24 patients with beta-thalassaemia and 7 out of 14 from the control group were positive for the RNA of the virus. The findings show that there is a statistically significant prevalence [chi2 = 6.344, P < or = 0.02] of HCV viraemia in the population of beta-thalassaemia major in Greece, as compared with the positive control group.
Twenty-four serum samples from multitransfused patients with beta-thalassaemia major and fourteen positive control samples, (eight haemodialysis patients and six sporadic cases of HCV infection) were selected as anti-HCV-positives by a second-generation ELISA, a confirmatory test (Abbott), and an immunoblot assay (INNO-LIA HCV AbIII, Omicron Medical). Subsequently, by means of the nested polymerase chain reaction technique (PCR), using the set of PT1-4 primers, the RNA of the virus was detected in a total of 29 samples: 22 out of 24 patients with beta-thalassaemia and 7 out of 14 from the control group were positive for the RNA of the virus. The findings show that there is a statistically significant prevalence [chi2 = 6.344, P < or = 0.02] of HCV viraemia in the population of beta-thalassaemia major in Greece, as compared with the positive control group.