Assuntos
Hepacivirus/isolamento & purificação , Hepatite C/epidemiologia , Prurido/epidemiologia , Adulto , Distribuição por Idade , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Estudos de Casos e Controles , Doença Crônica , Comorbidade , Feminino , Seguimentos , Hepatite C/diagnóstico , Humanos , Incidência , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Prurido/diagnóstico , Valores de Referência , Medição de Risco , Índice de Gravidade de Doença , Distribuição por SexoRESUMO
GOALS AND BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a hepatotropic and lymphotropic virus. This agent can promote development of a panel of autoimmune diseases. The relationship between HCV infection and vitiligo, in which autoimmune mechanisms are believed to play a role is not yet elucidated. In this study we investigated HCV seropositivity in vitiligo patients and compared this with non-vitiligo population. STUDY: A total of 102 consecutive patients with vitiligo were included in the study (47 male, 55 female, mean age: 36.8 +/- 16.9 years, range: 5-75). Control population was 670 age and sex matched healthy blood donors (406 male, 264 female, mean age: 32.8 +/- 11.3 years, range: 20-58). Third generation enzyme immunoassay was used for serum anti-HCV determination. When positive, qualitative confirmation was performed by HCV-RNA determination using RT-PCR. RESULTS: Anti-HCV antibody was detected only in 1 patient and confirmed by RT-PCR test. This patient was a 6-year-old girl with a non-segmental form of vitiligo, which is more frequently associated with autoimmune disorders, hence the incidence of HCV seropositivity found as 0.98%. There was no statistically significant difference between this figure and 0.6% prevalence in healthy blood donors. CONCLUSION: Seroprevalence of HCV in vitiligo patients is not different from that of a control group in Turkey, and HCV infection may not be involved in the pathogenesis of vitiligo despite case reports showing co-existence of these 2 diseases.