Hepatitis C Rapid Point-of-Care Testing and Laboratory-based Non-invasive Assessment of Liver Fibrosis among Drug Abusers: An Experience from Iran.
Drug users
Hepatitis C
Iran
Liver fibrosis
Point-of-care testing
Prevalence
Journal
Archives of Iranian medicine
ISSN: 1735-3947
Titre abrégé: Arch Iran Med
Pays: Iran
ID NLM: 100889644
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
01 02 2021
01 02 2021
Historique:
received:
12
05
2020
accepted:
21
10
2020
entrez:
27
2
2021
pubmed:
28
2
2021
medline:
21
10
2021
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
People who use drugs, particularly injection drug users (IDUs) are known as the major source of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. This study was performed to determine the prevalence of HCV infection using rapid point-of-care testing and to assess liver fibrosis by non-invasive lab tests among addict populations of Mashhad, Iran. In this cross-sectional study, drug users who referred to drug treatment and harm reduction centers of Mashhad were enrolled during March and December 2019. A rapid test kit was used to assess the presence of anti-HCV antibodies and a real-time PCR was performed to confirm the infection. The AST-platelet ratio index (APRI) and fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) score were used to investigate liver fibrosis in patients with positive HCV RNA. A A total of 390 drug users aged 15-74 years were assessed. Sixty-four individuals showed positive results for anti-HCV (16.4%), of whom 58 blood samples were available for PCR test. The viremic rate among the latter group was calculated at 84.5% (49/58); the total viremia prevalence was 12.8% (49/384). Multivariate analysis revealed that being single ( HCV infection screening using rapid tests and examining liver fibrosis by non-invasive lab tests appear to be practicable and useful among poor populations in settings such as drug treatment centers.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
People who use drugs, particularly injection drug users (IDUs) are known as the major source of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. This study was performed to determine the prevalence of HCV infection using rapid point-of-care testing and to assess liver fibrosis by non-invasive lab tests among addict populations of Mashhad, Iran.
METHODS
In this cross-sectional study, drug users who referred to drug treatment and harm reduction centers of Mashhad were enrolled during March and December 2019. A rapid test kit was used to assess the presence of anti-HCV antibodies and a real-time PCR was performed to confirm the infection. The AST-platelet ratio index (APRI) and fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) score were used to investigate liver fibrosis in patients with positive HCV RNA. A
RESULTS
A total of 390 drug users aged 15-74 years were assessed. Sixty-four individuals showed positive results for anti-HCV (16.4%), of whom 58 blood samples were available for PCR test. The viremic rate among the latter group was calculated at 84.5% (49/58); the total viremia prevalence was 12.8% (49/384). Multivariate analysis revealed that being single (
CONCLUSION
HCV infection screening using rapid tests and examining liver fibrosis by non-invasive lab tests appear to be practicable and useful among poor populations in settings such as drug treatment centers.
Identifiants
pubmed: 33636975
doi: 10.34172/aim.2021.14
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
94-100Informations de copyright
© 2021 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.