HEPATITIS-C VIRUS IN ALCOHOLIC PATIENTS WITH AND WITHOUT CLINICALLY APPARENT LIVER-DISEASE

A high prevalence of antibodies to the hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) ha s been demonstrated among patients with alcoholic liver disease, where as the prevalence of HCV viremia in these patients remains uncertain. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of anti-HCV in alcoholic patients both with and without clinically apparent liver di sease and to determine the presence of HCV RNA in those patients who t ested positive for anti-HCV by RIBA II (Chiron Corporation, Emeryville , CA). One hundred male patients consecutively admitted to an alcoholi c rehabilitation program were included. Group 1 was comprised of 40 pa tients with clinically apparent liver disease. Group 2 was comprised o f 60 patients without clinically apparent liver disease. Anti-HCV was performed by a second-generation ELISA assay and confirmed by RIBA II. HCV RNA was performed by Quantiplex assay (Chiron Corporation) acid a nested reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. No significan t differences were found between the two groups with regards to age, q uantity and duration of alcohol intake, or accepted risk factors for H CV. The overall prevalence of anti-HCV in our patients was 23%, with 4 3% of these in group 1 and 10% in group 2. HCV RNA tested positive in 94% of the anti-HCV-positive patients in group 1 and in 67% of the ant i-HCV-positive patients in group 2. These data suggest that HCV infect ion is an important cofactor in the pathogenesis of liver disease amon g alcoholic patients.