[Hepatitis C virus genotypes in a province of western Black-Sea region, Turkey].

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the significant causes of hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma all throughout the world. There are six genotypes and more than 50 subtypes of HCV. HCV genotyping is of crucial importance in the determination of the treatment protocols and the follow-up of the clinical course since treatment success is low and the duration of treatment is longer in HCV genotype 1 infected cases. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the HCV genotype profiles of the patients with chronic hepatitis C in Zonguldak, providing the first data about HCV genotypes from western Black-Sea region, Turkey. The HCV genotypes of 44 patients (26 female, 18 male; age range: 29-89 years, mean age: 60.05 ± 10.81 years) with positive anti-HCV antibody and HCV-RNA results, admitted to the hospital between May 2007 and July 2009, were retrospectively evaluated and included in the study. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels of the patients were between 8-160 IU/L (mean 63.99 ± 37.15 IU/L) and the aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels were between 17-160 IU/L (mean 62.77 ± 36.75 IU/L). HCV antibody was determined by ELISA method (Abbott Laboratories, USA), and HCV-RNA was determined by two commercial real-time polymerase chain reaction systems [Cobas Taqman (Roche Diagnostic, USA) and Rotor-Gene 6000 (Corbett Research, USA)]. The genotyping was performed by a reverse hybridization based method, Versant® HCV Genotype Assay (LiPA) 2.0 (Bayer Health Care, Belgium). HCV genotypes could not be determined for 5 (11.4%) patients since HCV-RNA levels were low. Genotyping could be performed for 39 (88.6%) patients and 38 (97.4%) had genotype 1b and one (2.6%) patient had genotype 1a. In conclusion, in concordance with the other studies conducted in our country, genotype 1b was found to be the most prevalent genotype in patients from our region.