Inverse correlation between the titre of antibody to hepatitis C virus and the degree of hepatitis C viraemia

Summary We titrated 277 hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody-positive serum samples from 235 volunteer blood donors as well as from 42 outpatients of a hospital for elderly people and studied the relation of the titre of HCV antibody to the presence of HCV RNA, of antibody to c100 protein (anti-c100) and of antibody to GOR epitope (anti-GOR). Liver dysfunction was measured also. Of 177 HCV RNA-positive serum samples, 87 were tested for the degree of HCV viraemia by means of a competitive assay. Among the 277 samples, prevalences of HCV RNA, anti-c100, anti-GOR and liver dysfunction were 63·9%, 71·8%, 75·7% and 17·5%, respectively. The prevalence of HCV RNA became higher as the titre of HCV antibody increased. The titre tended to increase with age but the tendency was not statistically significant. The mean titre was higher in females (2 10·4 ± 1·8 ) than in males (2 9·4 ± 2·2 ) ( P