Whole blood as an alternative to plasma for detection of hepatitis C virus RNA.
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells are reported to be one of the extrahepatic replication sites contributing to the persistence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Whole-blood and plasma samples from 61 individuals were compared as sources for the detection of HCV RNA. Forty-four of the individuals were receiving antiviral therapy, while 17 were treatment naïve. The quantitation of HCV RNA was done by a sensitive in-house real-time reverse transcription-PCR. When the viral loads in the two types of samples were compared, a correlation coefficient of 0.858 (P < 0.001) was found, indicating that plasma and whole blood are equally acceptable sources for testing for HCV RNA.
Daniel
Hubert Darius J
HD
Department of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College, Ida Scudder Road, Vellore 632 004, India.
David
Joel
J
Grant
Paul R
PR
Garson
Jeremy A
JA
Chandy
George M
GM
Abraham
Priya
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001769:Blood / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010949:Plasma / Q000821:virology; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D019562:Viral Load / Q000379:methods*
D012367:RNA, Viral