%0 Journal Article
%T Distribution of hepatitis C virus genotypes in patients infected by different sources and its correlation with clinical and virological parameters: a preliminary study
%A Ali Kabir
%A Seyed-Moayed Alavian
%A Hussein Keyvani
%J Comparative Hepatology
%D 2006
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1476-5926-5-4
%X Genotyping analysis was performed in 156 patients with positive anti-HCV and HCV-RNA. Patients were questioned concerning documented risk factors. Genotypes 1 and 3 were found in 87 (55.8%) and 45 (28.8%) patients, respectively. The most frequent HCV subtype was 1a (37.8), followed by 3a (28.9%) and 1b (16.7%). There was no statistically significant difference between the risk factors analyzed and the acquisition of HCV infection. We further found that 18 (40%) and 17 (37.8%) patients that were intravenous drug users (IVDU) had genotype 1a and 3a respectively.Genotypes 3a and 1a in Iran are less prevalent in IVDU than in Europe and USA, but there is a high similarity between the pattern of genotype in IVDU in both Europe and United States, and Iran. However, in this case it can not be due to people migration among countries since history of travel abroad existed only in 6 cases (13.3%).Chronic hepatitis C infection is now recognized as an important health problem [1]. Approximately 2¨C3% of the world population is infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). HCV is one of the leading causes of liver failure and cancer, and the single most common indication for liver transplantation [2,3]. In Iran, the prevalence of HCV infection is about 0.12% in blood donors [4], but it is increasing. It seems that the prevalence of HCV infection is less than 1 percent in our general population, but the infection is emerging mostly because of problems such as intravenous drug use and needle sharing among drug addicts. HCV infection is the most prevalent cause of chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis in hemophiliac [5] and thalassemic patients [6], and patients with renal failure [7] in Iran. Different HCV isolates worldwide show substantial nucleotide sequence variability throughout the viral genome [8-11].In the present study, we used PCR analysis with type-specific primers for identification of the HVC genomic typing, which enable the separation into six major genotypes (1 to 6) and a series
%U http://www.comparative-hepatology.com/content/5/1/4