Hepatitis C virus serological and polymerase chain reactions in human immunodeficiency virus-positive and -negative patients

BACKGROUND: Polytransfused patients may be dually infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). OBJECTIVES: To assess the correlation of antibodies to HCV with viral RNA in serum as determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in anti HIV-positive and -negative haemophiliacs. STUDY DESIGN: Serum from 150 Patients with or without HIV infection were examined for anti-HCV by second generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and recombinant immunoblotting assay (RIBA). A sample was also tested in a nested-reverse transcription PCR for a conserved sequence of the 5' untranslated region of HCV. PCR-positive specimens were titrated and a type-specific PCR using viral core gene sequences was used to determine distribution of HCV viral types. RESULTS: Eighty-seven percent of the patients were positive in ELISA. All the positives but 2 were either positive of indeterminate in RIBA. The frequency of indeterminate RIBA results was 33% among HIV-positive subjects and less than 1% among HIV-negative ones. PCR was positive in 68% of 73 RIBA-positive or -indeterminate individuals and negative in all HCV-seronegative individuals examined. No significant differences were observed in HCV viral type, prevalence or titers of viraemia between HIV-positive or -negative patients. CONCLUSIONS: The majority (68%) of anti-HCV-positive haemophiliacs examined in this study had HCV RNA in their sera and anti-HCV profile determined by RIBA had no apparent influence on viraemia. The presence of HIV infection in these patients had no significant impact on HCV RNA prevalence, titer or HCV type distribution.