Clinical investigation of HCV antibodies positive cases in the district with high mortality rate of liver diseases in Saga Prefecture

: The mortality and morbidity rates of chronic liver disease (CLD) have been extremely high for several years at Saga prefecture in Japan. Epidemiological studied revealed districts with high mortality rate of CLD (H-district). We measured C 100-3Ab and HCVCoreAb (CoreAb) in the H-district and observed high discrepancy between C100-3 and CoreAb. In order to examine pathogenesis of this discrepancy, we determined serum HCVRNA in these cases. The positive cases of HCV-Ab among 459 subjects were 33.6% (159). 59 subject were positive for both, 88 were only positive for CoreAb, 7 were only positive for C100-3Ab. Serum HCVRNA was detected in 92% (22/24) of both positive cases, in 67% (6/9) of only CoreAb positive cases, in 43% (3/7) of only C100-3Ab positive cases. These results suggested the cases positive for C-100-3 and CoreAb have chronic liver injury due to HCV infection, while the cases positive for only CoreAb involves healthy carrier or the memory state of HCV infection without liver injury.