Predictors for Early Identification of Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection can cause permanent liver damage and hepatocellular carcinoma, and deaths related to HCV deaths have recently increased. Chronic HCV infection is often undiagnosed such that the virus remains infective and transmissible. Identifying HCV infection early is essential for limiting its spread, but distinguishing individuals who require further HCV tests is very challenging. Besides identifying high-risk populations, an optimal subset of indices for routine examination is needed to identify HCV screening candidates. Therefore, this study analyzed data from 312 randomly chosen blood donors, including 144 anti-HCV-positive donors and 168 anti-HCV-negative donors. The HCV viral load in each sample was measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction method. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to find the optimal cell blood counts and thrombopoietin measurements for screening purposes. Correlations with values for key indices and viral load were also determined. Strong predictors of HCV infection were found by using receiver operating characteristics curves to analyze the optimal subsets among red blood cells, monocytes, platelet counts, platelet large cell ratios, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentrations. Sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (P < 0.0001) were 75.6%, 78.5%, and 0.859, respectively.

Evaluation of biochemical, hematological, RIBA and PCR assays in predicting viremia in anti-HCV positive patients

“…In this research, we found lower PLT and PCT values and higher MPV and PDW values in viremic patients than non-viremic patients, and the differences were statistically significant. Consistent with our results, Tsai et al [22] reported that HCV-infected patients had significantly lower PLT and PCT but significantly higher MPV and PDW when compared with the control group. The authors stated that, in other words, the HCV-infected group had larger, more irregular, and more numerous platelets compared to the controls.…”

“…In the cases (n = 76) with low positive anti-HCV titers (S/CO ratio of < 8), the frequency of false positivity was very high and all cases had negative HCV-RNA test result (Table 2). Additionally, similar to our findings, it was reported that HCV-RNA negative results could occasionally be seen despite high anti-HCV titers (Table 2) [8,12,15,17,19,22,23]. As mentioned above, patients already diagnosed with HCV infection were excluded from this research.…”

Influence of chronic hepatitis C infection on the monocyte-to-platelet ratio: data analysis from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2009–2016)

“…In a previous NHANES III study, 13% of HCV seroconverted patients had a depleted platelet count while only 5% of negative patients had less than < 175 × 10 9 platelets per litre [ 12 ]. Comparison of this result with other reports [ 11 , 14 ] indicates that the expected effect size of HCV infection on complete blood counts depends on values used to categorize a normal from abnormal count. To limit misclassification bias we composed the MPR from numeric platelet and monocyte counts before categorization by the mean value of HCV negative patients.…”

“…The proliferation of HCV stimulates the innate immune system leading to an increase in the population of monocytes [ 13 ]. In a cross-sectional comparison of HCV positive- and negative- patients the percentage of monocytes in a complete blood count increased in response to infection (Δ = 0.9%, P < 0.001) [ 14 ]. Thrombocytopenia (a decreased platelet count) occurs in response to liver disease or interaction between the virus and the innate immune response [ 11 ].…”

Red Cell Volume Distribution Width to Platelet Ratio is an Important Predictor of Liver Fibrosis and Cirrhosis in Chronic Hepatitis B

“…Value of PCT which is a marker of PLT activation has a tendency to increase particularly in cardiovascular diseases; it is calculated by using PCT=PLT count × MPV/10 7 formula (34). Tsai et al (35) has concluded that lower PCT value in144 HCV patients as compared to control group was a …”