Prevalence of hepatitis c virus infection in patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

ABSTRACT

This controlled, cross-sectional study included 30 patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma [B-cell NHL], 30 patients with malignant hematologic neoplesia other than B-cell NHL [control group I] and 30 patients randomly selected from general medical patients and healthy blood donors with non-malignant conditions [control group II]. All study populations were tested for antibodies to HCV by using a second-generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [anti-HCV EIA II]. Positive and indeterminate results were subjected to confirmatory testing using RIBA-hepatitis C virus [recombinant-based immunoblot assay-RIBA II]. Hepatitis C virus RNA was detected by a reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR] assay. The results revealed that infection with HCV was detected in nine patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma compared with two of 30 patients in control group I and one of 30 patients in control group II. All the three groups were matched as regarding age, sex and risk factors for hepatitis C virus infection. Patients with B-cell NHL who were HCV positive and HCV negative did not differ significantly with respect to the prevalence of low-grade [22.3% and 28.6%], or intermediate to high-grade lymphoma [77.7% and 71.4%]. In conclusion, the results of this study indicated a higher prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma than in the control groups. The prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in the two control groups, in turn, seems to fall within the estimated prevalence in the general population