Premium
Hepatitis C antibody profile and viraemia prevalence in adults with severe haemophilia
Author(s) -
Tedder R. S.,
Briggs M.,
Ring C.,
Tuke P. W.,
Jones P.,
Savidge G. F.,
Rodgers B.,
Garson J. A.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
british journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.907
H-Index - 186
eISSN - 1365-2141
pISSN - 0007-1048
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2141.1991.tb08064.x
Subject(s) - haemophilia , medicine , virology , antibody , immunology , haemophilia a , hepatitis c , hepatitis , pediatrics
Sera from 21 patients who had Received large amounts of unheated factor VIII concentrate were tested for antibodies to the hepatitis C virus (HCV) by both commercial (Ortho C100) and‘in house’ ELISAs. ‘In house’ assays utilized recombinant structural (core) or non‐structural (replicase) HCV proteins generated by a baculovirus expression system. Antibodies to HCV were detected in 100% of the sera by the core protein based ELISA but in only 62% and 19% by the C100 and replicase based ELISAs, respectively. Hepatitis C viraemia was demonstrated in 90% of the patients by in vitro amplification of the 5’non‐coding region of the HCV genome. Amplification with primer sets from two other regions of the genome proved less efficient at detecting viraemia. We conclude that the prevalance of hepatitis C infection in haemophiliacs may have been underestimated previously and that almost all HCV‐infected patients have evidence of on‐going viral replication.