Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the main cause of infection that has the potential to cause chronic liver disease. Injecting drug users (IDUs) have a key role in HCV transmission in Iran. Knowledge of the distribution of various genotypes is essential for successful future research and control strategies.Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify HCV genotypes among chronic infected injecting drug users (IDUs) in Tehran, Iran.Patients and Methods: In this cross sectional study, we investigated HCV genotypes among 36 plasma samples from HCV infected IDUs (35 male and 1female, mean age: 33.67, and age range 20-62 years), referred to Research Center of Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization(IBTO) in Tehran from December 2008 to March 2009.HCV Genotyping was performed using type-specific primers.Results: Genotypes 3a, 1a and 1b were found in 58.3 %, 25% and 16.7 % patients, respectively.Conclusions: Our study demonstrated the high prevalence of genotype 3a among injecting drug users, which is also found in Europe and United states

Background:Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection is diagnosed by antibody and RNA based methods. Patients with anti-HCV sample rate/cutoff rate (S/CO) ratios > 1 are reported as anti-HCV positive. RNA based methods are introduced to confirm positivity in seropositive samples.Objectives:The current study aimed to assess relationship between S/CO rates and HCV-RNA levels in the laboratory to identify HCV viremia in patients with a positive anti-HCV.Patients and Methods:All serum samples were assayed for anti-HCV by ELISA method. A total of 265 anti-HCV positive patients were tested for HCV-RNA testing by quantitative method using Artus HCV RG Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT- PCR) kit. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS version 16.Results:Of the 265 patients with HCV infection, 204 (77%) were male and the mean age was 43.53 ± 13.17 years, ranging 1 - 81 years. No correlation was found between S/CO ratios and HCV-RNA levels. There was significant difference in S/CO ratio between viremic and non-viremic subjects. The sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value were 100%, 81.4%, 100%, and 77.2%, respectively in the S/CO ratio of 2.7.Conclusions:The present study indicated that anti-HCV S/Co ratio is useful to predict non-viremic patients. A cut-off value of 2.7 can determine the usefulness of HCV-RNA testing. Patients with S/CO < 2.7 are not viremic; therefore, HCV-RNA testing is not recommended. It is suggested that laboratories report S/CO ratio along with anti-HCV results to manage HCV infection better, especially in countries that quantitative HCV testing is expensive or not available.

No abstract