title: Identifying hepatitis C virus: endemic areas and estimating the viral antibody prevalence based on the prevalence of ALT elevation.
abstract: To evaluate the validity of predicting the prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) based on the prevalence of alanine transaminase (ALT) elevation (>40IU/l), we conducted a community-based study. In total, 56698 individuals underwent health examinations in 2004. Another 43738 subjects in 2005 were the validation set. It should be valid to predict the prevalence of anti-HCV in villages (>25 participants) by the prevalence of ALT elevation. The equation was anti-HCV (%)=(% of ALT elevation - 6%)/65% (n=487 villages, R(2)=0.58). Villages with prevalence of ALT elevation >13% had a high probability of being HCV-endemic (anti-HCV >10%). The sensitivity and specificity were 73.6 and 74.6%, respectively. By the validation set, the positive and negative predictive values were 52.0% and 79.4%, respectively. Clinical and epidemiological deductions of the equation were that baseline of ALT elevation was 6% and two-thirds of anti-HCV-positive subjects had elevated ALT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung Medical Center, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jui-Chin
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.forename: Chih-Yun
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Jing-Houng
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Kwong-Ming
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Kee
authors.forename: Pao-Fei
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yao-Der
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Lin-San
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Tony Hsiu-Hsi
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Sheng-Nan
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D019353:Endemic Diseases; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000097:blood; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology*; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies; D000410:Alanine Transaminase