ABSTRACT
Hepatitis C virus [HCV] is the major cause of post-transfusion hepatitis world-wide and as thalassaemic patients are exposed to repeated bloodú transfusions, theyú are at' high-risk to get HCV infection. This study aimed at shedding some light on any association between serum cortisol, human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] or Schistosoma mansoni [S. manson i] infections and HCV viraemia in Egyptian thalassaemic children. This study was carried out on 51 thalassaemic children [34> and 17 +], aged 1-14 y attending the Hematology unit. Thirty-eight had been found to be + ve for HCV antibody [Ab], whereas 23 of them had HCV-RNA by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR]. All children were investigated for complete blood picture, hemoglobin electrophoresis, some liver function tests, HIV infection and serum cortisol level. Most of them tested for infection and S. mansoni serology. HCV -Ab +ve group were associated with blood transfusion >/= 10 units [P < 0.001]. heptomegaly [P < 0.05], hepatic tenderness [P< 0.0001], splenectomy [P < 0.02], elevated ALT [P < 0.01] and decreased serum cortisol [P < 0.000 1]. HCV -viraemia was associated with tender hepatomegaly [P < 0.05] only. Serum cortisol decrease was dependent on multiple blood transfusion rather than on HCV infection, whether associated with viraemia or not, in HCV-Ab the thalassaemic children. We recommend farther study for decrease of serum cortisol in HCV infected thalassaemics and other factors, not tested in the present study, behind HCV viraemia in these patients