title: [Usefulness of the PCR technique (polymerase chain reaction) in the follow-up of patients infected with hepatitis C virus. Preliminary communication].
abstract: In the study we show the usefulness of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) to follow patients with chronic hepatitis, infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) of Centro Médico de Caracas. The study included 14 patients: 12 anti-HCV positive, 1 with chronic autoimmune hepatitis and 1 classified as non B-non C hepatitis. The patients were divided in 3 groups: Group 1 (5 pretreatment patients, anti-HCV+), 4 with increase in ALT and PCR positive, 1 with normal ALT and PCR negative. Group 2 (7 treated with recombinant interferon alpha 2b), 4 without normalization of ALT and PCR positive, 3 with normalization of ALT and PCR negative. Group 3 (control) 2 patients anti-HCV negative and PCR negative. Two posttreatment patients could be genotyped: one patient was infected with 1a and showed an early relapse with treatment and the other was infected with genotype 1b, which is reported to be more refractory to antiviral treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  the results show a 100% correlation between biochemical markers of HCV infected patients and the presence of viral RNA detected by PCR. the usefulness of determination of genotype to assess any prognostic value of this parameter in Venezuela is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Lab. de Biología de Virus, CMBC, IVIC, Caracas.
authors.forename: F H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Pujol
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guzmán-Blanco
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Plaz
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Rojas
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Beker
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beker
mesh_terms: D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral
vernacular_title: Utilidad de la Técnica de PCR (reacción en cadena de la polimerasa) en el seguimiento de pacientes infectados con el virus de la hepatitis C. Comunicación preliminar.