Blood transfusion and hepatitis C virus antibody.

The relationship between blood transfusion and HCV antibody was examined using 311 samples from operation-scheduled patients, 299 post-transfusion patients, and 544 blood donors.As a results, HCV antibody was revealed in 9 blood donor cases (1.2%); 22 (7.2%) operation-scheduled patients, including 9 patients (43%) with blood transfusion history, were HCV antibody positive. Among the 58 operation-scheduled patients observed for more than 6 months, 11 cases (19%) showed HCV antibody. These patients had recieved transfusion of 18 units of blood on the average. Three of them were transfused with HCV positive blood.Positive HCV antibody was observed after HCV negative blood transfusion. On the other hand, one patient continued to show normal HCV antibody 14 months after the blood transfusion with strongly positive HCV antibody.Three out of 11 patients (28%) recieving HCV antibody-negative blood transfusion showed positive HCV antibody. These results suggested that about 6% of all transfused patients develope HCV infection.