Antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) in chronic renal failure (CRF) patients on conservative therapy: prevalence, risk factors and relationship to liver disease

There are no data regarding HCV prevalence in CRF patients notrequiring dialysis. In order to assess prevalence and risk factorsfor HCV infection in CRF patients on conservative therapy wetested, by second-generation assays such as Ortho 2 and 4-RIBA,221 predialysis CRF patients attending our Department. Forty-four(20%) patients were anti-HCV positive. Anti-HCV positivity wasrelated to blood transfusion requirement, past or current elevationsof transaminase levels and, to a lesser degree, CRF duration.The prevalence of anti-HCV positivity among CRF patients whowere never transfused was about 10 times higher than that ofblood donors. Our data show that predialysis CRF patients shouldbe considered a specific risk group for HCV infection; bloodtransfusion history and duration of CRF are risk factors foracquisition of HCV infection; HCV infec tion may play a rolein the development of liver disease in this clinical setting.