IMPORTANCE OF RT-PCR FOR DETECTION OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS AMONG DIFFERENT PATIENT GROUPS

A pilot study was undertaken to evaluate a sensitive single step rever se transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect hepatiti s C virus (HCV) RNA in plasma samples as an adjunct to antibody detect ion. In this study, digoxiginin labelling of the amplicon was carried out during the PCR and the product was detected by an ELISA format (DI G-ELISA) as well as ethidium bromide stained gel detection. DIG-ELISA detection of PCR product compared favourably with gel detection. We te sted 42 individuals with either parenteral risk factors or chronic liv er disease and found the RT-PCR enhanced the detection rate by 19 per cent. Considering either plasma RNA or antibody positivity, HCV infect ion was detected in 64.3 per cent of patients.