title: Whole blood as an alternative to plasma for detection of hepatitis C virus RNA.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College, Ida Scudder Road, Vellore 632 004, India.
authors.forename: Hubert Darius J
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Daniel
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: David
authors.forename: Paul R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Grant
authors.forename: Jeremy A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Garson
authors.forename: George M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Chandy
authors.forename: Priya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Abraham
mesh_terms: 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*
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral