Hepatitis C virus infection in patients with lymphoproliferative disorders

ABSTRACT

Involvement of hepatitis C virus [HCV] in pathogenicity of some lymphoproliferative disorders has been recently proposed. In the present study, the frequency of anti-HCV antibody [Ab] was determined in 42 patients with essential mixed cryoglobulinemia [EMC], 45 with multiple myeloma [MM] and 23 with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia [B-CLL]. Specific antibodies to HCV antigens were detected by enzyme-linked-immunosorbent assay and positive results were confirmed by recombinant immunoblot assay. Our results demonstrated anti-HCV positivity in 69% of EMC, 11% of MM and 4.3% of B-CLL samples tested. Considering the low prevalence of HCV infection in normal population [<1%], these data confirm and extend previous reports on the association of HCV infection with EMC and perhaps with MM