جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "hcv" در نشریات گروه "پزشکی"

Hepatitis B surface (HBs), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are three important factors of blood and blood product-transmitted infections worldwide.

This study examines the prevalence of HBs, HIV, and HCV infections in the blood donor population of Tehran City, Iran, using serological techniques, specifically rapid diagnostic tests, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and Western blotting (WB).

In this descriptive and retrospective study, the documents of all blood donors who had been referred to the Tehran Blood Transfusion Organization from 2016 to 2017 were reviewed. The results of their tests were evaluated. The present investigation assessed the prevalence of HBs, HCV, and HIV infections among donors using various methods, such as rapid diagnostic tests, ELISA, and WB. The SPSS software, version 19 and the statistical tests (chi-square, oneway analysis of variance, Duncan test) were used for data analysis.

According to the results, of 159000 blood donors, 1034 positive cases were detected using rapid diagnostic tests. After implementing the ELISA and WB techniques, positive cases decreased to 743 individuals. Approximately 65.28% of the blood donors were male and 34.72% were female. A total of 511 cases (42.49%) were married while 523(58.50%) were single. The infection rate under 60 years was higher than that at >60 years. Approximately 451 cases (43.62% of the total) were labeled as unknown, indicating an unknown infection method. Meanwhile, 253(24.46%) were low-risk and 330(31.92%) were considered high-risk. However, ELISA and WB assays revealed that the prevalence rates followed a specific order. HBs exhibited the highest prevalence, followed by HCV, and then HIV. The area under curve values for HBs, HCV, and HIV were 0.945, 0.920, and 0.998, respectively.

Rapid diagnostic tests are more specific but less sensitive and are not usually used as the first test. WB and ELISA tests have a confidence percentage of over 98%. The consistency between virus prevalence among blood donors in the Tehran Blood Transfusion Center was observed using the ELISA and WB methods.

Needle stick injury (NSI) is the most dreaded occupational health hazard affecting a healthcare worker (HCW) psychologically and physically. The risk of infection post needle stick injury ranges between 1.9% to greater than 40% for HBV infections, 2.7-10% for HCV and 0.2-0.44% for HIV infections. As per National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) records, nursing staff is at highest risk (43%) followed by physicians (28%). The main objective of this study was to evaluate knowledge of nursing staff about needle stick injuries and to study factors leading to such incidents in their working areas, impart them knowledge regarding the same and fill gaps in knowledge.

This is a cross-sectional retrospective analysis involving nursing staff and students. p values were calculated using SPSS software.

Overall NSI prevalence among nursing staff and students was 51.6% whereas in more exposed and less exposed group was 47.45% and 10.16% respectively (p=0.2056). The most common cause of NSI incident was recapping of needle (38.5%) followed by transferring needle to sharp container (35%).

Consequences of NSI are serious and this study has tried to emphasize on the need to study the factors leading to NSI.

Recently, prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection with Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), has dramatically increased worldwide due to their shared routes of transmission. Compared to sporadic infection with HIV, HBV, and HCV, concurrent infection with these agents increases the effects and complications of these viruses. Furthermore, co-infection may also alter therapeutic strategies against HIV. Accordingly, choosing appropriate biomarkers to detect these co -infections is one of the main concerns in the field of diagnostic pathology. Up to now, several markers have been introduced for simultaneous diagnosis of HIV, HBV, and HCV. In this regard, serum adenosine deaminase activity (ADA), Fibro Tests, AST-to-Platelet Ratio Index (APRI), Fibrosis-4, Hyaluronic acid, and micro ribonucleic acids have been investigated as potential biomarkers for diagnosis of HIV-HCV/HBV co-infections. This work summarizes the diagnostic value of current and emerging biomarkers in HIV patients concurrently infected with HBV and HCV.

The main role of ncRNAs (non-coding RNAs) is to regulate various cellular activities. LncRNAs (long non-coding RNAs) are a group of ncRNAs that are over 200 base pairs in length. It has been shown that lncRNAs regulate and control various cellular functions. Disruption of the expression of lncRNAs can cause various disease and deficiency in the cell function. LncRNA-HULK is one of lncRNA, which is greatly increased in liver disorders, including hepatitis C. Recently, the use of HULK as a biomarker has been suggested as a prognostic factor for liver disease such as hepatocellular carcinoma. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the level of lncRNA-Hulk in chronic HCV-infected patients.

The present study included 50 patients with chronic hepatitis C. After transferring the samples, total RNA was extracted and the quantity of HCV-RNA and lncRNA-HULK were determined using the real-time PCR assay. Finally, the relationship between HCV-RNA and lncRNA-HULK levels was evaluated.

Of the total patients, 13 were female and 37 were male. All patients were HIV Ag/Ab and HBs Ag negative. Results showed that HCV-RNA level was 4,500-2,300,000 copies per mL of plasma. In addition, threshold cycles of lncRNA-HULK were calculated 28-38. Statistical analyses showed that there was a significant relationship between HCV-RNA level and lncRNA-HULK in the plasma of chronic patients.

In the recent study, the relationship between HCV-RNA quantity and lncRNA-HULC level in chronic hepatitis C patients was investigated. It is suggested that lncRNA-HULC levels could be considered as a biomarker in such patients. Accordingly, lncRNA-HULC quantification could be utilized to predict the progression of liver disease and the outcome in chronic HCV-infected patients.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major public health threat, which can be treated if diagnosed early, but unfortunately, many people with chronic diseases are not diagnosed until the final stages. Machine learning and its techniques can be very helpful in diagnosis. This study examines the factors affecting hepatitis C diagnosis using machine learning.

A total of 27 features were used with a dataset containing 1385 records of patients with different grades of HCV. The dataset was clean and preprocessed to ensure accuracy and consistency. To reduce the dimension of the dataset and determine the effective features three feature selection, Pearson Correlation, ANOVA, and Random Forest, were applied. Among all the algorithms, KNN, random forests, and Deep Neural Networks were selected to be utilized, and then their evaluation metrics, such as Accuracy and Recall. To create prediction models, fifteen features were selected for the mentioned machine learning algorithms.

Performance evaluation of these models based on accuracy showed that Deep Learning with Accuracy = 92.067 had the highest performance. KNN and Random Forest had almost the same performance after Deep Learning. This performance was achieved on dataset containing features that were selected by ANOVA feature selection.

Machine learning has been very effective in solving many challenges in the field of health. This study showed that using data-mining algorithms also can be useful for HCV diagnosing. The proposed model in this study can help physicians diagnose the degree of HCV at an affordable and with high accuracy.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects around 170 million individuals worldwide, with an estimated 3% of the world’s population presently afflicted. More than 350,000 people are killed each year by HCV throughout Asia and the rest of the globe due to liver disorders such as cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Understanding viral-host protein interactions are essential for understanding viral infection, disease etiology, and the development of innovative therapeutics. This is due to the inherent limits of laboratory techniques for finding host-virus protein-protein interactions (PPIs). There seems to be a strong computational effect on the research of cellular infection.

In this study, we predicted the interaction between human and HCV proteins using an ensemble learning technique.Support vector machines (SVMs) nuclear liner and radial are the cornerstones of our model, as are K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) and Random Forest (RF). Four different feature vectors were used to encode human and HCV proteins: the tripeptide composition (TPC), The composition of k-spaced acid pairs (CKSAAP), the amino acid autocorrelation-autocovariance (AAutoCor), and the conjoint triad (CT).

The predictive power of the suggested technique is evaluated using a benchmark dataset that contains both consistently positive and negative PPIs. A support vector machine (Radial-SVM) model was used to predict which human proteins interact with HCV. To achieve accuracy and specificity of 84.9 and 88.3 percent, we employed tenfold cross-validation and principal component analysis (PCA).

Our technique correctly predicts PPIs based on human and HCV proteins. The discovery of HCV-human protein interaction networks, enriched pathways, gene ontology, and functional categories has improved our knowledge of HCV infection.

Hepatitis C infection causes an increase in oxidative stress in infected cells, followed by Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) gene expression. Silybum marianum, is one of the most widely used medicinal plants that has been used to control and reduce hepatitis manifestations, which contains silymarin –the effective component- that could protect liver cells.

In this study, Huh7 cell line originated from liver were infected by HCV virus model and then treated by silymarin. In order to investigate the anti-oxidative effect, the expression of COX-2 gene that plays central role, was measured in serial concentration of silymarin by developed quantitative RT-Real time-PCR.

Findings of the study showed that silymarin could control expression of COX-2 as well as oxidative stress. It was showed that, silymarin at the concentration of more than 200μM could reduce the expression of COX-2 and oxidative stress, and also it was concluded that silymarin above 300μM, could likewise have therapeutic effect on increased oxidative stress as well as COX-2 gene expression in HCV infected cells.

Conclusion:

 It was concluded that inhibition of COX-2 by silymarin has been considered as a promising and effective strategy for prevention and treatment of HCV and liver injuries and cancer.

 The microRNA (miRNA) mediated translational repression can cause various diseases in humans. The liver-specific miRNA (microRNA-122 (miR-122)) is primarily involved in tissue tropism during hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection which ultimately leads to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

 This study focuses on evaluating host serum miR-122 as a prognostic marker in HCV-induced hepatocellular carcinoma.

 Evaluation of miR-122 expression was carried out by quantitative real time PCR.

 Positive expression of miR-122 was observed in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) followed by HCC patients compared to healthy controls. A difference in median levels of the miR-122 expression in CHC and HCC patients (P < 0.000) was found in contrast to cirrhosis patients (P = 0.511). The serum miR-122 expression was found threefold higher in liver cirrhosis patients than chronic hepatitis. Further, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) analysis of miR-122 expression profile can efficiently distinguish CHC patients (AUROC = 0.978, P = 0.000, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.958 to 0.998) and HCC from healthy controls (AUROC = 0.971, P = 0.000, 95% CI = 0.944 to 0.997). Moreover, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis significantly distinguished between CHC patients from cirrhosis patients (AUROC = 0.955, P = 0.000, 95% CI = 0.925 to 0.986) but not CHC from HCC patients (AUROC = 0.584, P = 0.104, 95% CI = 0.485 to 0.684). This study revealed a substantial correlation of miR-122 with HCV viral load (r = 0.56, P = 0.000), ALT (r = 0.67, P = 0.000) and AST (r = 0.65, P = 0.000) levels.

 Serum miR-122 can potentially serve as a promising prognostic tool for HCV induced HCC.

Hemodialysis patients are at risk of viral infections such as hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV). Current study aimed to determine the prevalence of HBV, HCV, and HIV among hemodialysis (HD) patients who attended the dialysis center in Fasa, Iran.

 Collectively, 2082 hemodialysis patients (1291 men, 791 women) took part in our 6-year follow-up study.

2082 HD patients with a mean age of 56.2 ± 17.8 were included in our study. One (0.09%) patient was HBsAg positive, two (0.18%) patients were anti-HCV positive, and one (0.09%) was anti-HIV positive. There was no significant correlation between the paraclinical parameters of men and women.

The present study showed a reduction in the prevalence of HBV, HCV, and HIV infections during 6 years of follow-up in hemodialysis patients.

 Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection badly affects the liver and represents a critical health problem in Egypt. The parasitic diseases such as schistosomiasis, toxoplasmosis, or amebiasis were highly distributed among Egyptian citizens and affect the liver status in various ways. Co-infections of these parasites with HCV are pos sible and accompanied by negative clinical consequences. The current study shed the light on the incidence of Toxoplasma gondii, Entamoeba histolytica, and Schistosoma infections among the HCV patients from Menoufia Province, Egypt.

 One hundred and eighty HCV infected patients were examined for T. gondii, E. histolytica, and Schistosoma using ELISA or indirect haemagglutination test, and fecal examination was done to detect the E. histolytica cyst stage or Schistosoma mansoni ova.

 Overall incidence of T. gondii IgG and IgM was 65% and 3.89%, respectively. Moreover, the incidence of E. histolytica, and Schistosoma mansoni was (50% and 21.67) and (42.22% and 1.67%), using serological means and stool examination, respectively. Multiple parasitic infections (T. gondii and E. histolytica), (T. gondii and Schistosoma), (E. histolytica, and Schistosoma), and (T. gondii, E. histolytica, and Schistosoma) were 22.78%, 16.67%, 10.56%, and 10.56%, using serological means, respectively, among HCV-infected patients. Significant differences were demonstrated in the incidence of T. gondii, E. histolytica, and Schistosoma among HCV patients based on age, gender, and residence.

 T. gondii, E. histolytica, and Schistosoma mono- or multiple infections highly exist among HCV patients from Menoufia Province, Egypt.

Diabetes is recognized as a great concern and a public health problem worldwide. Several factors including environmental and genetic factors have been involved. Recently, infectious agents such as hepatitis C virus (HCV) have been reported to be associated with diabetes. Thus, this study was conducted to determine the frequency of HCV infection among patients with diabetes type 2 in Ahvaz city, Iran.

A case-control study design was conducted at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. A total of 600 study subjects were included in this research. All the patient sera were tested for Anti- HCV antibody, HBsAg, and HIV antibody. The sera of positive Anti-HCV antibody, were assayed for 5'- UTR and core regions of the HCV genome by Nested RT-PCR. Finally, the HCV genotyping was determined by sequencing.

The prevalence of HCV in type 2 diabetes and nondiabetic controls was 2% and 0.33%, respectively. The distribution of HCV genotypes among the HCV-positive patients were 3a (1.66%) and 1a (0.33%).

To control and improve the treatment, the screening of HCV infection with anti-HCV antibody was followed by molecular techniques such as PCR and HCV genotyping which should be implemented for all patients with diabetes type 2.

Transfusion transmissible infections (TTIs) are the most frequent complication of blood transfusions. This fact stresses the need for regular evaluation and monitoring of TTIs in blood donors.

This study was done to determine the prevalence of the hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and syphilis among blood donors at the South Khorasan Transfusion Center (SKBTC) in South Khorasan Province, Iran. This report is the first of its kind that has been performed in this region.

A retrospective study was carried out on 165,267 blood donors at the SKBTC from 2006 to 2016. Data were analyzed on the metrics of donation status, age, gender, educational level, and serologic results for the infectious markers. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software (version 16.0).

The overall seroprevalence rates of HBV, HCV, and HIV infections per 100,000 donations were 247, 21, and 0.6, respectively. There was no positive donor for syphilis. HBV and HCV infections in first-time donors were present at significantly higher rates than in regular and repeat donors (P < 0.001 and P = 0.003, respectively). Although gender was not found to be significantly associated with HBV and HCV (P = 0.32), there was a significant relationship between younger age (P < 0.001) as well as lower educational level and hepatitis agents (P < 0.001). Moreover, being single evinced a significant association with HCV seropositivity (P = 0.001).

This report found a decreased prevalence of TTIs relative to the most of previous reports. This decrease may have resulted from public health programs, improved donor selection, improved recruitment of repeat/regular donors, and the use of highly sensitive kits for the screening procedure.

Infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) occurs globally. It is a substantial cause of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Egypt one the countries that has the highest hepatitis C burden in the world. The occurrence of HCV is directly related to the number of individuals who regularly share injection instruments and to the prevalence of inappropriate parenteral procedures in healthcare facilities. The study aimed to identify unhealthy community practices related to HCV infection.

a nested case control study carried out in Damietta Governorate, Egypt. Where150 cases (positive for HCV) and 300 controls (negative for HCV) were randomly chosen.

Participant who shared shaving razor was 8.4times more likely to acquire HCV infection followed by IV fluid and needle or sharp stick (about six times more risk).while acupuncture, cupping, tattooing and traditional cauterization carried 1.6 to 3.6 times more risk for HCV infection.

Unhealthy community practices carried a higher risk for acquiring HCV infection. It is highly advocated to strengthen infection prevention and control program in health care facilities and health education programs to enhance community awareness and empowerment.

Silibinin (silibinin A) is the most active silymarin component, which acts both as a hepatoprotective [1] and an antiviral agent. The present study investigated the silibinin effect on IFN-related innate immune genes in PBMCs from HCV-infected patients.

22 chronic HCV patients, including 10 IFN responders and 12 non-responders, were included. Their isolated PBMCs were treated for 6 hours in the presence of silibinin, IFN-α, or their combination. The transcription level of TLR7, ISG15, and SOCS1 genes was compared using real-time PCR.

Our result showed that IFN-α induced a significant up-regulation of TLR7 and ISG15 in PBMCs of both responder and non-responder groups. Nevertheless, the SOCS1 gene was not significantly changed in the non-responder group (P=0.32). The combination of IFNα- and silibinin showed a similar pattern to IFN-α alone. By itself, silibinin did not leave a significant change on the expression level of the studied genes.

The results indicated that silibinin did not enhance or suppress the expression level of TLR7, ISG15, and SOCS1 genes.  Therefore, it has been suggested that its anti-inflammatory role might be devoid of IFN pathways.

Kidney transplant (KT) recipients have a high rate of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, which can impact long-term graft and patient survival rates. Although direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) are effective for treating HCV, there is limited data on their use in post-KT patients with HCV genotype 4 infection.

To evaluate the effectiveness and occurrence of adverse events with grazoprevir/elbasvir combination treatment without ribavirin in post-KT patients with HCV genotype 4 infection.

In this case series, nine therapy-naïve adult post-KT patients with HCV genotype 4 infection were recruited. They had stable graft function and received a fixed dose of grazoprevir/elbasvir (50 mg/100 mg) combination without ribavirin daily for 12 weeks. Patients co-infected with hepatitis B virus, HIV, or with evidence of decompensated liver disease were excluded from the study. Patients were monitored for viral load, laboratory values, and adverse events associated with drug treatment. The response was defined by the sustained virologic response at 12 weeks (SVR12) after the end of treatment.

All nine patients completed the treatment period and achieved SVR12 with no treatment failure or relapse. Of them, six patients had HCV genotype 4 infection alone, and three had HCV of mixed genotypes 1 and 4. Two (22%) patients showed a rapid HCV clearance at four weeks. No adverse events or serious adverse events were reported. The patients’ renal function was stable during and after the treatment with no deterioration of graft function, and no adjustments to the immunosuppressive therapy were required.

Grazoprevir/elbasvir combination without ribavirin is an effective and safe treatment option for post-KT patients with genotype 4 HCV infection.

 Hepatitis B and C virus (HBV and HCV) infections are major global health issues and the leading causes of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.

 The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of HBV and HCV infections in couples attending a premarital screening program in Zakho city, Kurdistan region, Iraq.

 This cross-sectional study was carried out in Zakho city, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, between January and October 2019. During this period, 2123 couples were screened for HBV and HCV as a part of premarital screening. The age of couples ranged from 18 to 63 years old. ELISA test was used to detect HBsAg, HBc IgG, and HCV Ab. Hepatitis C virus Ab positivity was then confirmed by HCV RT-PCR, and all HCV positive patients were then tested for genotyping.

 Among the recruited subjects, 38/4246 (0.89%) patients were positive for HBsAg. Of these, 12/2123 (0.57%) were females, and 26/2123 (1.22%) were males. Hepatitis C virus RT-PCR confirmed HCV positivity for one female patient who was further confirmed to be infected with HCV genotype 4.

 To conclude, the present study showed a relatively low prevalence of HBV and HCV infections in the couples tested through the premarital screening program in Zakho city. The prevalence of HBV seropositivity was higher in males than females. Therefore special attention should be paid to males during prevention strategies.
 

 Homeless people are prone to sexually transmitted and blood-borne infectious diseases such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV due to their risky behaviors and low awareness of various diseases.

 Thus, the present research aimed to examine the epidemiologic patterns of HBV, HCV, HIV, and related factors among the homeless population of Zahedan in 2019.

 A cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 329 homeless people. Eligible people were selected using a convenience sampling method from homeless individuals residing in care centers affiliated with the Welfare Organization and the Health Deputy of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences. Data on the demographic and behavioral characteristics of the cases were collected through a structured questionnaire completed in face-to-face interviews. A 10 cc blood sample was taken from each of the cases for serological tests of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV. The test results and collected data were entered in SPSS16 software. Logistic regression analysis and chi-square tests were used to analyze the data.

 The majority of the cases (84%) were males, and 59% were in the age-group of 35 - 50 years. Of the subjects, 93% had a history of drug abuse, 74% reported a history of smoking, and 45% had tattoos. The prevalence of hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and HIV was 13%, 2.7%, and 0.3%, respectively (only one case of HIV was identified). In a multi-variate model, imprisonment history [OR = 2.32 (1.08 - 4.98)], history of sexual abuse [OR = 3.73 (1.36 - 10.26)], being widowed or divorced [OR = 2.83, (1.21 - 6.64)], and history of injection with shared needles and syringes [OR = 5.11 (1.97 - 13.28)] remained the predicting factors of hepatitis C.

 Based on the obtained results of the study, homeless people are more prone to infections with HCV, HBV, and HIV due to their risky behaviors. Therefore, a need is highlighted for preventive interventions and developing the level of health literacy in this group regarding behaviors contributing to the aforementioned infections.
 

Dentists are at higher risk of exposure to blood-borne pathogens including HBV (hepatitis B virus), HCV (hepatitis C virus), and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge about post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) against HBV/HCV/HIV among the general dentists working in Mashhad in 2016.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on a random sample (141 persons) of the general dentists working in Mashhad. The data gathering tool in this study was a self-administered questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was assessed by a group of relevant specialists. The reliability of the questionnaire was also tested by a test-retest method with a two-week interval. The agreement between the two steps (test and retest) was at least 70%, and Cronbach’s alpha was 0.74. The total score of each person’s knowledge ranged from -20 to +20. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t test were used for statistical analyses.

Out of 141 dentists selected randomly, 101 subjects (69.3% male) participated in the study. The mean age of the participants was 42.3 years, And the mean duration of dental practice experience was 16.3 years. Regarding the mean age (P = 0.11), and the mean duration of dental practice experience (P = 0.12), there was no statistically significant difference between the two genders. The mean score of knowledge among the participants was -2.8, and there was no statistically significant difference between the two genders in this regard (P = 0.72).

This study indicated that the level of knowledge about PEP against HBV/HCV/HIV was very low among the general dentists working in Mashhad. Therefore, improving knowledge of general dentists working in Mashhad through appropriate educational interventions seems necessary.

 Most patients with untreated chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection develop hepatic fibrosis. Hepatic disease progression is monitored with hematological markers (alanine aminotransferase [ALT], aspartate aminotransferase [AST], albumin and platelet [PLT] count, AST/ALT ratio, AST/PLT ratio index [APRI], and fibrosis 4 score [FIB-4]) and FibroScan. The present study aimed to investigate the association between Duffy antigen/chemokines receptor (DARC) polymorphisms and clinical parameters in the Han people with chronic hepatitis C infection in Dalian, China.

 This cohort study was performed on 245 Han people with chronic HCV at Dalian infectious hospital during April-December 2015. The participants of the research were selected using the consecutive sampling method. The DARC genotyping was performed using the TaqMan probe method and transient elastography was measured by FibroScan.

 Based on the findings, DARC polymorphisms correlated with ALT concentrations (FY*A/FY*A vs. FY*A/FY*B, P=0.025). However, the DARC polymorphism did not have an association with HCV RNA titers (FY*A/FY*A vs. FY*A/FY*B, P=0.241) or hepatic fibrosis (FY*A/FY*A vs. FY*A/FY*B, P=0.325). Moreover, correlation analyses showed that APRI (P<0.001, rho=0.603) and FIB-4 (P<0.001, rho=0.698) were useful predictors of hepatic fibrosis in chronic HCV infection. Besides, HCV RNA titers (P=0.327) and hepatic injury markers (P=0.814, 0.198, 0.767, and 0.171 for ALT, AST, ALB, and AST/ALT, respectively) were not useful for the estimation of the fibrosis stage in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

 The FY*A allele is a potentially valuable protective factor against hepatocyte damage in chronic HCV-infected patients.