[Epidemiologic study of hepatitis C virus infections in the population monitored by the former Local Health Unit 10].
During the first six months of 1994 serum samples from 726 patients were assayed for anti-HCV antibodies of which 114 where found to be seropositive. After excluding those belonging to those categories known to be "at risk", the 93 remaining patients were evaluated from a clinical and chemico-clinical point of view. The distribution of seropositivity compared to age showed that around 70% of this sample were aged between 51 and 80 years old. In clinical terms 30% of patients were asymptomatic, while over 40% presented chronic hepatitis and 16% suffered from cirrhosis. Mean levels of bilirubinemia, SGOT, SGPT, AFP and gamma-GT were generally above normal. In particular, over 90% of transaminase values were found to belong to WHO hepatotoxic classes 0-2; only a few cases showed a very high level of hepatic toxicity, while over 25% showed normal hepatic function.
Zanardi
G
G
Laboratorio di Analisi Clinico-Chimiche e Microbiologiche, Ospedale Civile, Guastalla Reggio Emilia.
Colombini
R
R
Coiro
V
V
Bonini
C
C
Berioli
M E
ME
Catellani
S
S
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006268:Health Facilities; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory