Abstract
The seroprevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection was investigated among haemodialysis (HD) patients. Mean serum aminotransferase levels were also compared over 3 months in HCV-seropositive patients with and without viraemia, as well as in HCV-seronegative HD patients and HCV-seropositive, non-uraemic, viraemic patients. Seroprevalence of HCV infection was 19% among the 437 HD patients tested. Of the 61 HD HCV-seropositive, hepatotoxic medication- and alcohol-free patients, 38 (62%) were found to be viraemic, using quantitative HCV-RNA, on at least one occasion. Mean serum aminotransferase levels were significantly higher in viraemic HD patients (compared with non-viraemic patients), suggesting that HCV-RNA positivity is an important predictor of increased enzyme activity in these patients. As expected, aminotransferase levels in HCV-seropositive HD patients tended to be lower than levels in HCV-seropositive non-uraemic patients.