الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus. The disease can range in severity from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, lifelong condition that can lead to cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer. Every year, 3–4 million people are infected with the HCV, about 150 million people are chronically infected corresponding to 2-2.5% of the world’s total population and more than 350 000 people die every year from hepatitis C-related liver diseases. There is currently no vaccine for hepatitis C; however, research in this area is ongoing. Hepatitis C is found worldwide with some countries having chronic infection rates as high as 5% and above. Egypt has the highest prevalence of HCV infection of any country in the world. the overall prevalence (percentage of people) positive for antibody to HCV was 14.7%. Genotype 4 is the predominant genotype of HCV in Egyptian patients (up to 91%). Immunological disorders have been frequently described in the course of HCV-related chronic hepatitis, and non–organ-specific autoantibodies (NOSAs) in particular are common examples of autoreactivity associated with HCV infection. The aim of this work was to study the occurrence of ASMAs among CHC patients and their association with liver enzymes. It was conducted on 200 subjects, 100 of them were patients with CHC infection attending Alexandria Fever Hospital for follow up of treatment and 100 were hepatitis C negative subjects undergoing analysis for health certificate. All of them were tested for the presence of ASMAs and also were tested for their levels of liver enzymes; ALT and AST. A questionnaire was completed for each patient including the name, age, sex, occupation, marital status, residence, disease history and risk factors. Abdominal ultrasound reports were obtained from hospital records for 27 CHC patients. The results of the present study included: 1. ASMAs were detected in 6 % CHC subjects and in only 1% HCV negative subject. 2. Out of the 6% CHC ASMAs positive patients, 66.7% were males and 33.3% were females and their age ranged between 50-60 years, 100% were married, 66.7% from urban areas, 50% of them had shistosomiasis, 83.3% had cirrhosis and 16.7 had fibrosis. 3. The only ASMAS positive HCV negative subject was single male aged 26 years from urban area and he was diabetic. Conclusions 1. ASMAs were not frequently found in CHC patients. 2. Patients with positive ASMAs had higher ALT and AST levels than ASMAs negative subjects. |