Association of genotypes with viral load and biochemical markers in HCV-infected Sindhi patients.

The presented study had two objectives. The first was to examine distributions of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) genotypes in Sindh, Pakistan, where HCV is prevalent. The other was to explore clinically relevant relationships between the genotypes, viral load (measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction assays) and biochemical markers. For this, 1471 HCV-infected patients in six cities in Sindh were recruited and sampled. HCV genotype distributions varied among the cities, but genotype 3a was most prevalent, followed by 3b, 1a and 1b (detected in 51.5, 22.7. 9.25 and 3.2% of the cases, respectively). No type-specific sequences were detected in serum samples from 189 (12.8%) of the 1471 patients. Frequencies of low (<200,000IU/mL serum), intermediate (200,000-600,000IU/mL serum) and high (>600,000IU/mL serum) viral loads were respectively 45.4, 16.5 and 38.1% for patients infected with genotype 3, and 16.9, 36.9 and 46.2%, respectively, for patients with other genotypes. Infection with genotype 1a was associated with significantly higher (p<0.005) alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase titers than infection with genotype 3a. The results will help in the formulation of treatment strategies.