TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessment of hepatitis c virus rna levels by quantitative competitive rna polymerase chain reaction
T2 - High-titer viremia correlates with advanced stage of disease
AU - Gretch, D.
AU - Corey, L.
AU - Wilson, J.
AU - Dela Rosa, C.
AU - Willson, R.
AU - Carithers, R.
AU - Busch, M.
AU - Hart, J.
AU - Sayers, M.
AU - Han, J.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2016 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1994/6
Y1 - 1994/6
N2 - A quantitative competitive RNA polymerase chain reaction (QC-PCR) assay was developed for measuring absolute levels of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in the sera of 121 viremic persons, including 64 asymptomatic blood donors, 39 symptomatic patients referred for treatment of chronic hepatitis C, and 18 patients with end-stage liver disease referred for liver transplantation. Mean HCV RNA levels (log molecules per milliliter) were lowest among blood donors with normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) values (5.8 ± 1.5), higher among blood donors with elevated ALT (6.9 ± 0.8) and clinic patients with chronic active hepatitis (6.9 ± 0.7), and highest among patients with cirrhosis (7.1 ± 0.8) or end-stage liver disease (7.6 ± 1.0). High-titer viremia (>7.5 logs/mL) was more frequent among patients with end-stage liver disease (14/18; 78%) than either blood donors (10/64; P <.001) or patients with chronic active hepatitis (7/26; P <.001). Thus, 121 (94.5%) of 128 anti-HCV-positive persons were viremic. QC-PCR may be valuable for monitoring HCV infection status and selecting individuals for therapy.
AB - A quantitative competitive RNA polymerase chain reaction (QC-PCR) assay was developed for measuring absolute levels of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in the sera of 121 viremic persons, including 64 asymptomatic blood donors, 39 symptomatic patients referred for treatment of chronic hepatitis C, and 18 patients with end-stage liver disease referred for liver transplantation. Mean HCV RNA levels (log molecules per milliliter) were lowest among blood donors with normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) values (5.8 ± 1.5), higher among blood donors with elevated ALT (6.9 ± 0.8) and clinic patients with chronic active hepatitis (6.9 ± 0.7), and highest among patients with cirrhosis (7.1 ± 0.8) or end-stage liver disease (7.6 ± 1.0). High-titer viremia (>7.5 logs/mL) was more frequent among patients with end-stage liver disease (14/18; 78%) than either blood donors (10/64; P <.001) or patients with chronic active hepatitis (7/26; P <.001). Thus, 121 (94.5%) of 128 anti-HCV-positive persons were viremic. QC-PCR may be valuable for monitoring HCV infection status and selecting individuals for therapy.
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U2 - 10.1093/infdis/169.6.1219
DO - 10.1093/infdis/169.6.1219
M3 - Article
C2 - 8195599
AN - SCOPUS:0028335961
SN - 0022-1899
VL - 169
SP - 1219
EP - 1225
JO - Journal of Infectious Diseases
JF - Journal of Infectious Diseases
IS - 6
ER -