[Hepatitis C virus antibodies (HCV) in patients treated with chronic hemodialysis]

Patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis are frequently affected by nosocomial viral infections, as indicated by the high prevalence of HBV antibodies. The question, to what extent HCV is transmitted by blood transfusions (NANB-PTH), or acquired in a nosocomial manner, is still unanswered. We therefore evaluated the HCV antibody rate of 387 sera of dialysis patients on the "Eurotransplant" waiting list. The HCV antibody reactivity ranged from 5.4 to 12.0% between different dialysis centers. In highly immunized (HLA antibody positive) long-term dialysis patients 31.3% (vs. 8.3% in non-immunized patients) were HCV antibody positive.