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Clinical significance of serum hepatitis C virus titers in patients with chronic type C hepatitis.

OBJECTIVES
To investigate the relationship between serum hepatitis C virus (HCV) titers and clinicopathological characteristics of chronic type C hepatitis.


METHODS
Serum HCV cDNA concentrations were determined by a competitive polymerase chain reaction assay in 60 Taiwanese patients with chronic type C hepatitis.


RESULTS
The concentration of serum HCV cDNA ranged between 10(2) and 10(8) copies/mL. The titers of serum HCV (logarithmic transformed copies of HCV cDNA/mL serum) were not significantly correlated with clinicopathological characteristics with respect to either sex of the patients, source of infection, higher serum ALT level (>150 IU/L) or histological severity. In contrast, serum HCV titers were significantly higher in patients with age above 50 yr and with type 1b HCV infection. Moreover, the influence of advancing age on serum HCV titer was genotype-independent by multivariate analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that advancing age and genotype are both important determinants of HCV viremia and that the pathogenesis of HCV infection might not be caused by direct cytotoxicity of the virus.