RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 Relation of hepatitis C virus genotypes to risk factors and hepatic disease in Spanish patients A1 Alonso Alonso, P. A1 Orduña Domingo, Antonio A1 San Miguel, A. A1 Dominguez, E. A1 Bratos Pérez, Miguel Ángel A1 Gutierrez, M.P. A1 Eiros Bouza, José María A1 Inglada, L. A1 González Hernández, J.M. A1 Rodríguez Torres, A. K1 Hepatitis C K1 Genotipos del VHC K1 Epidemiología K1 32 Ciencias Médicas AB Objective:To ascertain the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes in Spain and their distribution by risk factors.Methods:The study covered 216 patients with hepatitis C. Of these, 63 were intravenous drug users (IVDU), 44 had received transfusions, and 30 were hemodialyzed, and in 79 the risk factors were unknown. Antibodies against HCV were detected by second-generation enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and confirmed by immunoblot. HCV RNA presence was investigated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and a reverse hybridization test of the amplifications was used for the genotyping.Results:The most frequently encountered genotypes were 1b (48.1%), 1a (21.3%) and 3a (11.1%). HCV genotypes 1a (42.8%) and 3a (20.6%) were the most prevalent genotypes in IVDU patients, while 1b was the most frequent in patients with unknown risk factors (62.0%), transfused patients (68.1%) and hemodialyzed patients (50.0%). Mixed infections were detected in nine cases (4.1%); three appeared in IVDU patients (4.7% of the total IVDUs), two in transfused patients (4.5%) and four (50%) in patients with unknown risk factors. No statistically significant differences were found in average ages of the IVDU patients with different genotypes. Non-IVDU patients having genotype 3a presented the lowest average age of all. No significant statistical differences were observed in alanine aminotransferase levels among patient groups with different genotypes (p >0.05 in all cases). Subtype 1b was present in six of the seven cases of cirrhosis (85.7%) and in nine of the 18 cases of active chronic hepatitis (50.0%). PB Elsevier SN 1198-743X YR 1997 FD 1997 LK http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/45670 UL http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/45670 LA eng NO Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 1997, vol. 3, n.6, p. 647-652 NO Producción Científica DS UVaDOC RD 25-abr-2024