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Detection of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) RNA in Normal Cervical Smears of HCV‐Seropositive Patients

2002; Oxford University Press; Volume: 35; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/342909

1537-6591

M. Manavi, Mehrdad Baghestanian, Thomas Watkins‐Riedel, Walter Battistutti, Kerstin Pischinger, Christian Schatten, Eveline Witschko, Gernot Hudelist, H Hofmann, K. Czerwenka,

Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment

The presence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in normal cervical smears (CS) obtained from 22 HCV-seropositive and 50 HCV-seronegative patients was assessed by reverse-transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The presence of HCV in serum was established by use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, Western blot test, and RT-PCR. HCV was detected in 36.4% (n=8) of CS cells recovered from 22 HCV-seropositive patients, but not in CS samples obtained from 50 HCV-seronegative patients. Furthermore, cells from the CS of 2 seropositive/smear-positive patients and 1 seropositive/smear-negative patient were isolated; HCV RNA was detectable in the cervical lymphocytes of the 2 smear-positive patients, but not in epithelial cells or granulocytes. HCV RNA is detectable in the CS of some HCV-seropositive women. The clinical importance of these data requires further study.