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Objective: To investigate the relationship of hepatitis C virus (HCV) serotype with genotype., Methods: The serotypes of HCV in the serum of 104 patients with chronic hepatitis C from 14 cities in China for which HCV genotypes were available, were determined by ELISA using Murex HCV Serotyping 1-6 Assay., Results: The serotypes of 86 (82.69 percent) of the 104 serum specimens were determined, and HCV serotypes were determined for 91 strains. Overall the concordance between hepatitis C virus serotype and genotype was 62.1 percent, and the concordance of serotype, with genotypes 1, 2 and 3 were 69.4 percent, 51.2 percent and 70.0 percent, respectively. The false-negative rate and concordance of genotype 2b was lower (54.5 percent)., Conclusion: The specificity of HCV serotyping was affected by HCV strains' genotype and sometimes HCV serotype was not in concordance with genotype.

Objective: To investigate the HCV genotypes distribution in northern and southern cities in China and the difference between patients infected with HCV by transfusion and non-transfusion routes., Methods: The HCV genotypes of the patients with chronic hepatitis C from 9 cities belonging to different regions were genotyped by the PCR products of 5 prime untranslated region NTR digested with restriction endonucleases, and the HCV genotypes distribution among different cities or between the patients infected with HCV through transfusion and other routes was analyzed., Results: The HCV genotypes of 214 in 219 cases were determined; 197 patients were infected with monogenotype HCV. The major epidemic genotypes of HCV isolates in China were 1b (76.64%) and 2a (18.22%), but 5.14% of patients were infected with HCV belonging to genotype 3b and this was the first report that there is genotype 4a in China. The HCV genotype distribution was not different in northern and southern areas, but was significantly different between patients infected with HCV through transfusion and non-transfusion routes (P=0.036). In patients infected trough transfusion, the rates of monogenotype HCV infection and genotype 1b were 93.88% and 76.87%, respectively, which were higher than those (86.57% and 58.21%) in the patients infected with HCV through non-transfusion routes. The rate of patient infected with mixed genotype HCV strains in non-transfusion group was 13.43%, which was higher than that (6.12%) of patients in transfusion group., Conclusion: The HCV genotype distribution in northern and southern regions were similar, but was significantly different between the patients infected through transfusion and other routes.