Hepatitis C antibody in health puertorican blood donors: prevalence, hepatic functional and histological abnormalities

ABSTRACT

The prevalence of hepatitis C antibody by ELISA I in 45797 consecutive Puertorican blood donors was 1.41 percent. 67 of these donors were fully evaluated and 31 underwent liver biopsy. Risk factors for hepatitis C were present in 71.6 percent, and 45 percent had elevated ALT. Of the 31 donors that underwent liver biopsy, 16 had elevated ALT and all had significant histologic abnormalities, while only one with normal ALT had Chronic active hepatitis. RIBA II was performed in 37 and only 20 (54 percent) were positive. Of the 17 RIBA II positive donor that underwent biopsy, 88 percent had evidence of chronic liver disease. Of 530 donors positive for hepatitis C antibody by ELISA in whom RIBA II was performed, 282 were negative, making the percentage of false positives 53.2 percent. We conclude that Puerto Rico has a high rate of hepatitis C infection, and that RIBA II positive and elevated ALT predict the presence of significant liver disease.