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Viremia in chronic hepatitis C patients evaluated by the Amplicor RT‐PCR, a nested RT‐PCR, and transaminase levels
Author(s) -
LAURSEN ALEX L.,
INGERSLEV JØRGEN,
ANDERSEN PAUL L.,
ØTERGAARD LARS
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
apmis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1600-0463
pISSN - 0903-4641
DOI - 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1998.tb01354.x
Subject(s) - viremia , concordance , virology , medicine , nested polymerase chain reaction , viral load , hepatitis , serial dilution , reverse transcriptase , alanine transaminase , elevated transaminases , viral disease , hepatitis c virus , immunology , virus , gastroenterology , polymerase chain reaction , biology , pathology , gene , biochemistry , alternative medicine
A commercially available kit, Amplicor®, was compared with a locally developed nested reverse‐transcriptase (RT) PCR for qualitative detection of HCV‐RNA. Sixty‐one serum samples from sixty‐one patients with liver disease, and 60 samples from 60 hemophiliacs without symptoms, but known to have been heavily exposed to hepatitis C virus, were investigated. There was a high degree of concordance between the two diagnostic tests (97%), the Amplicor® kit being slightly more sensitive than the in‐house PCR, when evaluated using serial dilutions of samples showing discrepant results. The relationship between viremia and abnormal ALT levels was studied in the two groups of patients. Among those with chronic liver disease, 8.3% of patients with viremia had normal ALT levels, whereas transaminases were normal in 20% of hemophiliacs with viremia. This points to ALT as being a poor marker of ongoing viral replication.