Search

Two hundred and forty-three patients receiving renal replacement therapy (RRT) and 20 renal unit staff were tested for antibodies to hepatitis C (HCV). Three patients (1.2%) were positive by the first generation test kit, the lowest rate in patients receiving RRT reported in the literature to date. These three, and eight other patients tested positive by the second generation kit, a prevalence rate of 4.5%. Anti-HCV antibody positivity was associated with higher mean serum alanine aminotransferase (p = 0.0003) and aspartate aminotransferase (p = 0.018) levels. However, only one of the 11 anti-HCV positive patients had liver transaminase levels more than twice the upper limit of the laboratory reference range. Anti-HCV positivity was associated with a higher mean number of units of blood transfused (p = 0.035). None of 20 staff were anti-HCV positive. Twenty-five of 212 (11.7%) patients reported a history of liver disease; none of these were anti-HCV positive. Hepatitis B surface antigen was detected in eight of 215 (3.7%) patients, of which three were e antigen positive. There was evidence of past hepatitis B infection in 53 of 215 (24.7%) patients, more frequently in Maoris (p = 0.001). Overall, significantly raised liver transaminases were present in three of 198 (1.5%) patients and in no staff. This unit has a remarkably low prevalence of antibodies to HCV, an observation supported by the low rate of abnormal serum liver enzymes.

The aim of the study was to investigate the specificity of psychological profiles in female Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) patients by a comparison with a gastrointestinal patient control group and with a normal population control group. The results showed that the IBS patients scored significantly higher than the normal population sample on three test scales: Anxiety, Phobic and Somatisation. Our results thus support the conclusion of earlier authors that a moderate degree of psychoneurotic disorder exists amongst IBS patients. However, the patient control group also scored significantly higher than the normal control group on two factors (Phobic and Somatisation), and the comparison between the IBS group and the patient control group did not reveal any significant differences. It is suggested that attention to the psychological needs of both IBS and other gastrointestinal disease patients should form an important part of the management strategy, particularly in the former--where a consistently clear benefit for any particular therapy has yet to be shown.