Objectives: To study personal and familial antecedents of risk and prevalence of infection by HCV in pregnant women in the south area of Granada.
Patients and methods: We included in the study 3003 pregnant women of the south area of Granada during the period from January 1993 to December 1995. Anti-HCV was detected in the third trimester of pregnancy by second and third generation ELISA, and positive results were confirmed by RIBA 3. We also determined HCV-RNA and genotype. Finally, we analyzed ALT levels in 1171 (39%) pregnant women. We carried out an epidemiological survey of all pregnant women, which included the following personal antecedents: transfusion, intravenous drug use, liver diseases, risk profession and sexually transmitted diseases. We studied the same antecedents in the parents, husbands and other relatives.
Results: Prevalence of anti-HCV was 0.63% (19 cases) with ELISA and 0.53% with RIBA. HCV-RNA was positive in 14 (74%) genotype 1b (57%) being the most frequent. ALT was increased in 52 (4.4%) pregnant women, 7 (13.5%) of whom were anti-HCV positive, versus 12 women (1%) in the normal ALT group (p < 0.001). In the epidemiological study we observed statistically significant differences in: a) housing characteristics [2125 (71%) anti-HCV negative pregnant women living in occupant-owned housing versus 7 (36%) in anti-HCV-positive group, p < 0.001]; b) personal antecedents of transfusion, chronic or acute hepatitis, or intravenous drug use (p < 0.001) (these factors were confirmed in the multivariable analysis), and c) familial antecedents of the husband (p < 0.05).
Conclusions: In this study we demonstrated that 0.53% of the pregnant women were infected by HCV; most of them were HCV-RNA positive and was genotype 1b was the most frequent. The risk factors most frequently associated with infection were antecedents of transfusion, intravenous drug use and acute or chronic hepatitis.