Hepatitis C core antigen testing to diagnose active hepatitis C infection among haemodialysis patients.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects more than 71 million people worldwide and chronic HCV infection increases the risk of liver cirrhosis and failure. Haemodialysis (HD) is one of the renal replacement therapies with risk of HCV transmission. Anti-HCV antibodies are the serological screening test for HCV infection that does not detect active phase of infection. Majority HCV infected HD patients in Malaysia do not have further HCV RNA performed due to high cost and thus HCV treatment is less frequently offered. HCV Core Antigen (HCV Ag) can potentially be used to diagnose active HCV infection in HD population in comparison to HCV RNA, at lower cost.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study to assess the correlation between HCV Ag and HCV RNA and to identify the pre

SUBMITTER: Wong XZ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7666439 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature