¨Hepatitis C virus and GBV-C / Hepatitis G virus in Argentine patients with Porphyria Cutanea Tarda¨.

OUBIÑA JR, QUARLERI JF, SAWICKI MA, MATHET VL, RUIZ V, SCHRODER T, MÉNDEZ M, PARERA V, MURAMATSU H, BATTLE, GONZÁLEZ CAPPA SM, FAINBOIM HA

INTERVIROLOGY

KARGER

Lugar: Basel; Año: 2001 vol. 44 p. 215 - 221

0300-5526

To investigate hepatitis C virus (HCV) and GBV-C/hepatitis G virus (HGV) genotype prevalence among HCV-infected porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) patients, 19 HCV-infected patients with associated PCT were studied. A control group of 53 age-matched HCV-infected patients without associated PCT was selected. Eighteen of the 19 serologically positive HCV-PCT patients showed HCV RNA in serum. Genotype 1b was the most prevalent among both HCV-PCT patients (72.2%; 13/18) and age-matched HCV controls (50.9%; 27/53). Such different genotypic prevalence failed to reach statistical significance (chi(2) with Yates' correction, p = 0.19). The single HCV-PCT patient without detectable HCV RNA was also infected with genogroup 3 GBV-C/HGV. This GBV-C/HGV RNA prevalence (5.3%) among HCV-PCT patients is not statistically different from that observed among Argentine blood donors (5.5%; 11/200). To our knowledge, these results show for the first time the molecular epidemiology of both HCV and GBV-C/HGV associated to PCT in America.