[Serum antibodies against hepatitis C: study of 4,100 blood donors from the northeast of France].

Between June 1989 and February 1990 the prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) was studied in blood donations from 4,100 donors tested in north east France. 37 samples were found reactive for anti-HCV (prevalence of anti-HCV: 0.90%) without any significant difference in sex (males: 0.94%; females: 0.87%) and age distributions. 178 (4.34%) of the 4,100 donors were found anti-HBc positive, 5 of these donors being anti-HCV positive (13.51% of all anti-HCV positive donors). 52 donors (1.27%) had raised alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels (greater than or equal to 2 N: 2 times the M +/- 2 SD value): 3 were found anti-HCV positive (8.11% of all anti-HCV positive donors). Association of the 2 surrogate markers is poorly sensitive since it detects only 8 (21.62%; males: 4, females: 4) of all anti-HCV positive donors. Furthermore, it appears weekly specific since it discards 230 blood samples of which 222 (96.52%) were anti-HCV negative. The 2 surrogate markers are complementary to one another and none of the anti-HCV positive donors had both anti-HBc antibodies and raised ALT. The mean ALT level is significantly higher in anti-HCV positive donors as compared to seronegative (M +/- 1 SD: 51 +/- 82 U/l versus 24 +/- 17 U/l). In anti-HCV positive donors, a marginal (r = 0.34) though statistically significant (p less than 0.05) positive correlation was found between ALT level and anti-HCV ratio.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)