Association of hepatitis C virus & hepatitis B virus in chronic liver disease.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) as a cause of chronic liver disease (CLD) was assessed by testing anti-HCV antibodies in the serum samples of 55 patients of chronic hepatitis (17), cirrhosis (32) and hepatocellular carcinoma (6). All the samples were also tested for the presence of HCV RNA by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using primers from the 5' non-coding region (NCR) and the relationship between the serological parameters and presence of HCV RNA was studied. The association of hepatitis B virus (HBV) with HCV in this group was evaluated by testing for the anti HBc antibodies (IgG and IgM separately) and HBsAg. The biochemical parameters and involvement of other risk factors were also studied. Twenty two (40%) patients were found to be HCV positive and 17 (77.3%) of these had evidence of infection or past exposure to HBV. On comparing the sensitivities of ELISA with that of PCR for the detection of HCV, we observed no significant difference between the two methods (P > 0.05, McNemar's test). Eighteen patients had no evidence of HBV or HCV infection. Our results indicate that HCV is next only to HBV in the causation of CLD. It is suggested that RT-PCR be used with antibody detection by ELISA for reliable detection of HCV infection.