title: [Multicenter study on the prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in blood donors in the city of Curitiba, Brazil].
abstract: In order to check the presence of anti-HCV in the blood of voluntary blood donors in four of the most active blood banks of Curitiba, PR, Brazil a third generation immunoassay (Murex--version III, ABBOTT AxSYM HCV version 3.0) was used. The study detected 347 positive cases, i.e. a median prevalence of 0.80% (range 0.64%-1.11%). Only 44 from the 347 anti-HCV positive blood donors had elevated values of serum aminotransferases (12.68%). Such low values of ALT suggest that the confirmatory RIBA should be applied to the remnant 303 anti-HCV positive cases (87.32%) which did not show elevation of ALT, with the expectation that 30% to 40% of them might be positive. The prevalence of anti-HCV in blood donors in Curitiba seems similar to published data in the Brazilian medical literature.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Clínica Médica, Hospital de Clínicas da Universidade Federal do Paraná, UFPR, Curitiba.
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Parolin
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.forename: P T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: de Almeida
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Baldanzi
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Lopes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001782:Blood Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D000410:Alanine Transaminase