الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus. The disease can range
in severity from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, lifelong condition that can
lead to cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer. Every year, 3–4 million people are infected
with the HCV, about 150 million people are chronically infected corresponding to 2-2.5%
of the world’s total population and more than 350 000 people die every year from hepatitis
C-related liver diseases. There is currently no vaccine for hepatitis C; however, research in
this area is ongoing. Hepatitis C is found worldwide with some countries having chronic
infection rates as high as 5% and above.
Egypt has the highest prevalence of HCV infection of any country in the world. the
overall prevalence (percentage of people) positive for antibody to HCV was 14.7%.
Genotype 4 is the predominant genotype of HCV in Egyptian patients (up to 91%).
Immunological disorders have been frequently described in the course of HCV-related
chronic hepatitis, and non–organ-specific autoantibodies (NOSAs) in particular are
common examples of autoreactivity associated with HCV infection.
The aim of this work was to study the occurrence of ASMAs among CHC patients
and their association with liver enzymes. It was conducted on 200 subjects, 100 of them
were patients with CHC infection attending Alexandria Fever Hospital for follow up of
treatment and 100 were hepatitis C negative subjects undergoing analysis for health
certificate. All of them were tested for the presence of ASMAs and also were tested for
their levels of liver enzymes; ALT and AST. A questionnaire was completed for each
patient including the name, age, sex, occupation, marital status, residence, disease history
and risk factors. Abdominal ultrasound reports were obtained from hospital records for 27
CHC patients.
The results of the present study included:
1. ASMAs were detected in 6 % CHC subjects and in only 1% HCV negative subject.
2. Out of the 6% CHC ASMAs positive patients, 66.7% were males and 33.3% were
females and their age ranged between 50-60 years, 100% were married, 66.7% from
urban areas, 50% of them had shistosomiasis, 83.3% had cirrhosis and 16.7 had
fibrosis.
3. The only ASMAS positive HCV negative subject was single male aged 26 years from
urban area and he was diabetic.
Conclusions
1. ASMAs were not frequently found in CHC patients.
2. Patients with positive ASMAs had higher ALT and AST levels than ASMAs negative
subjects.