Objective: The main objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) among patients with 13-thalassemia major and to determine the most prevalent genotype for this virus.
Materials and Methods: One hundred twenty-two (3-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). [beta]-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 [beta]-thalassemia major patients without HCV.
Conclusion: HCV genotype 4 is the commonest genotype in multi-transfused patients with [beta]-thalassemia major in Jordan. (Turk J Hematol 2011; 28: 47-51)