Seroprevalence and genotyping of hepatitis C virus in multiple transfused Jordanian patients with β-thalassemia major.
OBJECTIVE
The main objectives of this study are to investigate the prevalence of HCV among patients with β-thalassemia major and to determine the most prevalent genotype for this virus among them.


METHODS
One hundred twenty-two β-thalassemia major patients who were previously diagnosed at the molecular level were included. All plasma samples were tested for the presence of antibodies by ELISA. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used in the quantitation the HCV RNA viral loads, and consequently, patients with high virus titer were genotyped by the linear array.


RESULTS
Forty of the patients were anti-HCV positive. The prevalence of anti-HCV was significantly higher in patients who received blood transfusion before 1993 (83.7%) than in those who received it after 1993 (16.3%) (p=0.000). β-thalassemia major patients with HCV infection had significantly higher rates of elevated aspartate aminotransferase (54.4% vs 40.5%, p=0.045) and alanine aminotransferase (72.47% vs 37.47%, p=0.00) and of splenectomy (54.8% vs 45.2%, p=0.004) than β-thalassemia major patients without HCV.


CONCLUSIONS
HCV genotype 4 is the commonest genotype in multi-transfused patients with β-thalassemia major in Jordan.
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/BMTKing Abdalla University HospitalFaculty of MedicineJordan University of Science & Technology, Irbid, Jordan, Phone: +0799051255 E-mail: sweedan@just.edu.jo.
Suleimman Ahmad
SA
Al-Sweedan
Said
S
Jaradat
Khitam
K
Amer
Wail
W
Hayajneh
Hazem
H
Haddad