title: IgM anti-hepatitis C virus in patients with chronic non-A, non-B hepatitis and their relationship to viral replication.
abstract: Patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection may have different patterns of antibody response to various structural and non-structural viral antigens. We have correlated the serological patterns to the clinical features of chronic infection and to viral replication in 68 HCV-Ab-positive patients with chronic liver disease at different stages (19 with cirrhosis-hepatocellular carcinoma, 38 with chronic active hepatitis and 11 with chronic persistent hepatitis). Serum samples from each patient were assayed for HCV-IgM by enzyme immunoassay and for HCV-RNA by the polymerase chain reaction using primer sets derived from the 5'-non-coding region. The prevalence of HCV-IgM was high (54 patients (79.4%)) and the study showed a good correlation between high values of anti-HCV-IgM and the presence of HCV-RNA in serum, since HCV-RNA was detected in 35 of the 54 IgM-positive patients (64.8%) and notably in 19 of the 20 subjects with high levels of specific IgM. Conversely, all the 35 sera containing HCV-RNA were also reactive for HCV-IgM, while none of the HCV-IgM-negative sera was HCV-RNA reactive. Positivity rates for both HCV-RNA and IgM anti-HCV were higher in the more advanced stages of disease; thus, the clinical pattern of HCV chronic hepatitis seems to be strictly related to the serological pattern and the presence of HCV-RNA.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University La Sapienza, P. le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mancini
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rivanera
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lilli
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Di Cuonzo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Angeletti
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lorino
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: De Sanctis
authors.forename: I G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Barbacini
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leonetti
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bianchi
authors.forename: L V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Chircu
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Galli