Cyw. Tong et al., THE OCCURRENCE OF HEPATITIS-B AND HEPATITIS-C VIRUSES IN PAKISTANI PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC LIVER-DISEASE AND HEPATOCELLULAR-CARCINOMA, Epidemiology and infection, 117(2), 1996, pp. 327-332
To study the occurrence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C vir
us (HCV) in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) and hepatocellul
ar carcinoma (HCC) in Pakistan, blood samples from 105 sequential pati
ents with biopsy-proven CLD (n = 82) and HCC (n = 23) were tested for
HBV and HCV markers. Of the 105, 87 (83%) had evidence of hepatitis B
exposure, 58 (55%) were positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsA
g), 23 (22%) had hepatitis C antibodies and 25 (24%) had detectable HC
V RNA. Significantly more patients with HCC had evidence of HBV exposu
re in the absence of HCV markers (49/82 vs. 20/23, odds ratio 4.49, 95
% CI 1.17-25.16). The proportion of patients positive for HBsAg with n
o HCV markers was also significantly higher in the HCC group (34/82 vs
. 18/23, odds ratio 5.08, 95% CI 1.59-18.96). There were more patients
with only HCV markers in the CLD group than the HCC group but the dif
ference was not statistically significant (19/82 tts. 1/23, odds ratio
6.63, 95% CI 0.93-288.01). A modified non-isotopic restriction fragme
nt length polymorphism study on PCR products was used to investigate t
he epidemiology of HCV genotypes in Pakistan. Due to depletion of the
initial samples, a second series of specimens collected one year after
wards was used. Fifteen out of 40 samples had amplifiable product and
all were identified as type 3. A commercial serological typing method
on the same samples also confirmed that type 3 was the predominant HCV
genotype in Pakistan.