The Prevalence of HCV Infection in Hemodialysis Population and Compared ELISA and PCR Methods for Detecting of HCV Infection

Hemodialysis is one of the renal replacement therapies in patients with end-stage renal failure. The current study aimed at identifying the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in hemodialysis population, and comparing serological (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) and molecular (polymerase chain reaction) methods to detect HCV infection in North of Iran.
Serum samples from 162 patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis were collected in 2 hemodialysis units of Sari city (North of Iran). HCV RNAs were isolated from samples using RIBO-prep nucleic acid extraction kit (AmpliSens®, Russia). Total RNAs were extracted from samples and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed using HCV-FRT PCR kit (AmpliSense, Russia) according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
In the study, 7 (4.3%) cases were HCV-Ab positive and 155 (95.7%) HCV-Ab negative. Additionally, 11 patients (6.8%) were HCV-PCR positive, while 151 (93.2%) were HCV-PCR negative. Among 11 HCV-PCR positive patients, 7 (63.6%) were HCV-Ab positive and 4 (36.4%) were HCV-ab negative. HCV-ab test was not positive in any of the HCV-PCR negative patients.
The results showed that the specificity of HCV-RNA detection was significantly higher than that of the conventional HCV-ab test. The gold standard test to confirm HCV positive should be PCR method.