Distribution of HCV Genotypes in Hemodialytic Patients of Guilan (The North Province of Iran)

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been identified as the major cause of chronic liver disease among patients on chronic haemodialysis (HD).The aim of this study was to identify the HCV genotypes among chronic HD who were HCV positive in Guilan province in North of Iran. All the patients on HD from eleven Guilan HD centers were enrolled; their sera were screened for anti HCV antibodies by enzyme-linked-immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and genotyping was performed in positive anti HCV cases. SPSS 14 was used for analysis and P<0.05 were considered statistically significant. Out of 514 enrolled patients, 61 (11.9%) were serologically HCV positive and 32(6.2%) had positive HCV RNA [CI 95%: (9.07-14.67)]. The most frequent genotypes were 1a and 3a with prevalence of 59.38% [CI 95%: (42.36-76.4)] and 40.62% [CI 95%: (23.61-57.65)], respectively. There was no significant relationbetween virus genotypes and gender or age. An important finding was the high prevalence of genotype 3a (64.7%) in Rasht, the capital city of the province.(P≤0.05) HCV genotype pattern among HD patients in Guilan province is like non-Arab countries of Middle East; where genotype 1 is predominate.