| pubmed-article:1647550 | pubmed:abstractText | From November 1989 to April 1990 we analyzed prospectively the prevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus antibodies and the possible mode of infection in 90 outpatients with repeatedly elevated alanine-aminotransferase levels. The clinical and serological course of these patients was evaluated after 1, 3 and 6 months. Initially, 24 patients (26.6%) were positive for anti-HCV antibodies, but subsequently only 14 of these patients (15.5%) were positive in the follow-up tests. 9 patients (10%) showed no antibodies against HCV in control evaluations and one patient dropped out of the investigation. The 9 patients with a negative result in the control tests had median relative anti-HCV concentrations of 2.0 (range 1.2-4.1) in contrast to 5.5 (range 1.6-256.5) in the 14 patients with a confirmed anti-HCV test (p less than 0.001). None of those 9 patients had received blood transfusions, 7 had consumed drugs intravenously and only 2 had no specific risk for HCV infection. The consistently anti-HCV positive patients had median alanine-aminotransferase levels between 115 and 200 U/l, whereas the levels in initially anti-HCV positive and subsequently negative patients ranged from 75-90 U/l. The initial prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies in 26.6% of our patients is related to the high rate of either false positive results or sero-conversion in 38% of this group. We recommend cautious interpretation of anti-HCV test results with relative anti-HCV concentrations less than or equal to 2 in equivocal clinical situations. | lld:pubmed |
