Akademik Gastroenteroloji Dergisi
Yazarlar: Nilay DANIŞ, Ayşe ARSLAN, Murat Abdullah BUYRUK, Fulya GÜNŞAR, Ayşın ZEYTİNOĞLU, İmre ALTUĞLU, Ulus Salih AKARCA
Konular:Sağlık Bilimleri ve Hizmetleri
DOI:10.17941/agd.930893
Anahtar Kelimeler:Anti-HCV positivity,HCV-RNA,Serology screening
Özet: Background and Aims: The success rate of hepatitis C virus treatment is ~100% after administration of direct-acting antivirals. However, many patients remain undiagnosed. We determined the prevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus and hepatitis C virus-RNA positivity in patients who were screened for hepatitis C virus before surgical procedures and investigated the rate of awareness of their illness. Materials and Methods: Anti-hepatitis C virus screening data were requested and reviewed from all surgical clinics between 2012 and 2015, and positive patients were evaluated for hepatitis C virus-RNA positivity. Treatment data were collected from the Medula System, an integrated database of the Social Security System. Untreated anti-hepatitis C virus positive patients were contacted by phone and asked whether they were aware of their positivity. Results: A total of 19,627 patients were screened for anti-hepatitis C virus during the study period, of which 158 patients (0.8%) were positive (male: 76; female: 82; age: 58.2 ± 17.6 years). Eighty-three patients were tested for hepatitis C virus-RNA, whereas 75 patients were not. Of the 58 patients who could be contacted, 14 were aware of their anti-hepatitis C virus positivity. The remaining 44 patients were alerted to present to the gastroenterology or infectious diseases outpatient clinic. Conclusion: Among the 19,627 patients screened, 0.8% showed anti-hepatitis C virus positivity, which is similar to the prevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus positivity among the general Turkish population. Almost half of the patients were not tested for hepatitis C virus-RNA, and most of the patients had no information about their anti--hepatitis C virus positivity. These results indicate that pre-surgical anti-hepatitis C virus screening is insufficient for diagnosing new patients.