الفهرس 
Introduction and Review of LiteratureOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Hepatitis C virus infection is the leading cause of advanced liver disease and a major international public health problem. HCV is recognized as a major threat to global public health. Prevalence rates of infection range from 0.5-2 % in the developed world, through 6.5% in parts of equatorial Africa, to as high as 20% in Egypt. The natural history of chronic HCV infection suggests that there is a sequential but slow progression from acute HCV infection to chronic infection, leading to fibrosis, cirrhosis and death from either liver failure or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Nitric oxide (NO) is a short-living biological mediator that possesses a wide range of physiologic functions, such as regulation of platelets function, and killing of intracellular pathogens. NO is a signal molecule with functions such as neurotransmission, local vascular relaxation, and anti-inflammation in many physiological and pathological processes. The aim of the present study was to determine the levels of NO in the sera of HCV-infected patients and to see whether its concentration is affected by the presence of HCV or not. In this study 250 serum samples from subjects with various liver affections were screened for HCV infection including the detection of anti-HCV antibodies and HCV antigen using ELISA technique, in addition to 30 serum samples from healthy individuals with matched age range as negative controls. The following parameters were tested in all serum samples: detection of HCV-antibodies (HCV-Ab), detection of HCV-antigen (HCV-Ag), quantitative estimation of HCV-Ag, detection of NO and quantitative estimation of NO level in HCV-Ag positive samples.