[Determination of HCV infection stage in a group of seropositive patients from Maracaibo, Venezuela by measurement the antibody avidity index of anti-HCV IgG]. / Determinación del estadío de la infección por el virus de Hepatitis C (VHC) utilizando la ténica de cuantificación de la avidez de las IgG.

OBJECTIVE: To identify HCV infection stage in a group of seropositive patients from Maracaibo, Venezuela, using the measurement of IgG antibody avidity technique. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We used a modification suggest by Leon et. al.(1997) of the normal protocol of ELISA Ortho HCV 3.0 Kit. This protocol modification was make two parallel assays for each sample adding new wash step using 6M Urea for one of parallel assays. RESULTS: The average AI (Avidity index) of 19 HCV seropositive patients found was 55 +/- 23,8%. Also, it was found that three (15,79%) of these patients were in primoinfection stage by HCV, seven (36,84%) were in past o chronic stage and nine (47,36%) were in chronic stage. The new cases ratio calculated for the investigation period was 1/5, this mean that for each five patients diagnosed with HCV, only one was in the acute phase of infection. CONCLUSION: Data from this study provides new information about epidemiology of HCV in the area.

[Seroprevalence of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in patients of the Regional Viral Reference Laboratory (Maracaibo, Venezuela)]. / Seroprevalencia del Virus de Hepatitis C (VHC) en pacientes del Laboratorio Regional de Referencia Virológica (Maracaibo, Venezuela).

PURPOSE: Collect and analyze information regarding seroprevalence of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in a population of 722 patients that visited the Regional Viral Reference Laboratory (Maracaibo, Venezuela) during the years 2000-2003. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An immunoenzymatic test INNOTEST HCV Ab IV of Innogenetics was used to evaluate the presence of IgG type antibodies against the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in the serum of the patients studied. Results obtained with respect to seroprevalence and other epidemiological variables, were organized and analyzed using SPSS 10.0 (Chicago, USA) and Origin Pro 7.5 (Northampton, USA) software. RESULTS: A seroprevalence of 2.63% (19,322) was found, higher than that reported in Venezuela for the general population (0.9%) and other groups. The infection was more frequent in men than in women. The most common symptoms in the infected patients were jaundice and cephalalgia (31.58%). CONCLUSION: The data reported shall update previous research in the zone and indicates the need to develop epidemiological control for Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in the State of Zulia.