Implication Of Hepatitis C Virus (hcv)in The Aetiology Of The Antiphospholipid Syndrome(aps/) :

Hala Mohamed Abd El-al

This study aimed at evaluation of the presence of ACA IgG and IgM in chronic hepatitis C infected patients. The study was carried out on 59 chronic hepatitis C infected patients and 21 healthy control. All the patients were HCV-RNA positive confirmed by PCR, HBs Ag and HIV negative. Non of our patients was receiving interferon theraphy during the study. All patients and controls were subjected to the following :1-Full clinical evaluation : including history taking and full clinical examination .2-Fasting blood sample was drown from each person and subjected to:a-platelet count.b-AST ,ALT & y GT .c-ACA IgM & IgG.The statistical analysis of the study showed :1-There was a significant decrease in platelet count in chronic HCV infected patients compared with control group.2-There was a significant increase in AST serum levels in chronic HCV infected patients compared with control group.3-There was a significant increase in ALT serum levels in chronic HCV infected patients compared with control group.4 -There was a significant increase in yGT serum levels in chronic HCV patients compared with control group.5-15 of our patients were ACA/IgG positive while 44 patients were ACA IgG negative. The percentage of positivity was 25.42%. Non of the controls was ACA IgG positive. The percentage of positivity was 0%. There was a significant increase in ACA IgG serum levels in chronic HCV patients compared with control group.6-Only lof our patients was ACA IgM positive while 58 patients was ACA IgM negative.The percentage of positivity was 1.69%. Non of the controls was ACA IgM positive. Thepercentage of positivity was 0%.There was non significant increase in ACA IgM in chronic HCV compared with control group.7-There was non significant difference between ACA IgG positive and negative cases as regard age and ALT serum levels.8-There was a significant increase in ACA IgG positive cases compared with ACA Igo negative cases as regard female to male ratio .9-There was a significant decrease in platelet count in ACA IgG positive cases compared with ACA IgG negative cases.10-The presence of thrombotic events and portal hypertension was related to the positivity of ACA IgG.from this results we concluded that:1- HCV infection is associated with a high prevalence of ACA.2- ACA might be responsible for the high incidence of thrombocytopenia and thrombotic events in HCV patients.3- HCV might be an additional recognized cause of APS.