و عوامل خطر آن در بيماران همودياليزي c شيوع هپاتيت

Seroprevalence of hepatitis C and risk factors in hemodialysis patients in Guilan Province, Iran

Objective(s): To determine l-ICV infection in hemodialysis patients in Guilan, Iran. Material & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all 298 hemodialysis patients with regard to their sex, age length of time on dialysis and previous kidney transplantation were evaluated in Guilan Province. Blood samples screened for anti I-ICV antibodies by a second generation Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA H). Positive samples were retested for confirmatory immunoblotting assay. Analysis were carried out using the Epi6 software. Results: An overall prevalence of 24.8% (95%CI: 19.9-29.7) was found, ranging from 9% to 40% depending on the dialysis unit. Of the 298 cases, 80 were found to be seropositive by ELISA and 74 were confirmed positive by Western blot assay. The relationship between sex, age and seropositive results was not significant but relationship between length of time on dialysis and history of kidney rejection with seropositive results was significant. Eleven patients had rejected kidney. Of these 7 cases were seropositive. Conclusion: These data suggest that nasocomial transmission may play a role in the spreed of HCV in the dialysis units. A separate hemodialysis system should be used for seropositive HCV patients.