Hepatitis C virus genotyping versus serotyping in Egyptian patients.
BACKGROUND
The RNA genome of hepatitis C virus (HCV) displays extensive sequence variation. In this study, serotyping and genotyping techniques were applied to assess this variability by comparing the performance of the serotyping assay with a panel of well-characterized HCV strains isolated from chronic active hepatitis (CAH) patients.


METHODS
60 serum samples from CAH patients were analyzed. All isolates were genotyped by a line probe assay and the results of genotyping and serotyping were evaluated.


RESULTS
The overall sensitivity of the serotyping and genotyping techniques was 81.16% with a concordance of 73.3%. Type 4 was detected in 73.3% of cases and it was highly heterogeneous.


CONCLUSIONS
Type 4 HCV is the most prevalent type in Egyptian CAH patients and there is a high concordance between the results of serotyping and genotyping techniques.
Cancer Biology Dept., National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Egypt. egcs@starnet.com.eg
A R
AR
Zekri
A A
AA
Bahnassy
A S
AS
Ramadan
M
M
El-Bassuoni
A
A
Badran
M A
MA
Madwar
D004534:Egypt; D005838:Genotype; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012703:Serotyping / Q000379:methods*; D014766:Viremia / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology