Sajjad Iqbal, Rashid Ahmed, Muhammad Haroon Yousaf, Asim Mumtaz, Dawood Amin, Ghulam Rasool, Azmat Manzoor.
Hcv infected patients.
Professional Med J Jan ;14(2):266-71.

Objectives: To assess the prevalence of different hepatitis C virus (HCV) major genotypes and subtypes in HCV infected patients. Design: A cohort prospective study. Place and Duration: At Shalamar Hospital Lahore, From Dec 2002 to Dec 2005. Patients and methods: 1652 patients, 697 females and 955 males infected with hepatitis C virus confirmed by ELISA were included in the present study for the analysis of HCV genotypes. Infection was reconfirmed by HCV RNA detection with qualitative PCR. Gentyping was done with multiplex PCR using type specific primers. Results: Among 1652 genotyping was done with multiplex 3 was seen most common 1220 (73.85%). Second and third common genotypes were 2 and 1 , 154 (9.33%) and 80 (4.84%) respectively followed by genotype 4 which was 41 (2.84%). In this study 106 (6.42%) cases remained unclassified and mentioned as untypable. In 51(3.09%) cases more than one notype was seen which reported as mixed genotypes. Conclusion: Patients with chronic liver disease due to hepatitis C virus infection in this part of Pakistan had predominantly HCV genotype 3 but the presence of genotype 1 and 4 could not be excluded. So before therapy genotyping must be taken under consideration.

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