الفهرس 
Hepatitis C VirusOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Aim: Egypt has the highest HCV prevalence in the world; however, there is paucity of data on the prevalence of HCV in Egyptian rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. The aim of the current study was to estimate this prevalence.
Methods: The study included 300 Egyptian patients diagnosed with RA according to the ACR/ EULAR 2010 classification criteria. All participants were tested for HCV antibodies using 3rd generation ELISA and positive patients were tested for HCV RNA by Real Time PCR.
Results: HCV antibodies were detected in 15% of patients (45/300), of which 80% were positive for HCV RNA (36/45). Prevalence of HCV antibodies was higher in females than males (15.3% and 12.5%, respectively) and in patients living in rural areas than those living in urban areas (16.7% and 14.6%, respectively). HCV prevalence increased sharply with age to reach 50% in patients older than 60 years (12/24). There was a statistically significant increase (p<0.001) in the mean age and RA disease duration in the HCV antibodies positive group (51.1 vs. 41.2 and 11.7 vs. 5.2 years, respectively). HCV was strongly associated with RF (OR = 3.7, P< 0.001). Lower spontaneous clearance of HCV was observed in the studied RA patients compared to population based estimates.
Conclusion: We estimated that the prevalence of HCV antibodies in Egyptian patients with RA is 15%. Given this exceptionally high prevalence, we recommend screening of all RA patients in Egypt for hepatitis C at diagnosis and before starting treatment.