Blood count profile in chronic active hepatitis (C) Egyptian patients

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the most important causes of chronic hepatitis globally, and particularly in Egypt. Abnormal blood counts have been noted in clinics among patients with HCV infection. The present work is a case control study conducted in Damanhour Medical National Institute (DMNI) to evaluate the frequency and severity of peripheral blood cell abnormalities in HCV- infected Egyptian patients. Two groups of individuals were randomly selected, group 1 comprised 100 patients suffering from chronic active hepatitis C with positive RNA PCR, and group 2 comprised 100 healthy persons and represented the control group. Low neutrophil and platelet counts, but not anemia were noticed in the first group and were significantly different when compared to the control group (<2.1x10(9)/L in 27% of patients versus 10% of controls and <175x10(9)/L in patients versus 11% of controls respectively at p<0.01). Obesity, advanced age and anti HCV seropositivity were independently associated with neutropenia, while advanced age and female gender and anti HCV seropositivity were associated with thrombocytopenia among HCV infected patients.