CONCISE COMMUNICATION Multicenter Evaluation of Hepatitis C RNA Levels among Female Injection Drug Users

The purpose of this investigation was to identify factors that determine the blood level of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA. By use of a quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay, the level of HCV RNA was ascertained in stored serum samples from 676 women enrolled in a multicenter prospective investigation who were seropositive for anti-HCV antibodies. HCV RNA levels ranged from undetectable to copies/mL in these women. Among the622.4 3 10 520 women with detectable HCV RNA, levels were higher among those who were 141 years old and those who had human immunode®ciency virus (HIV) infection. After adjusting for age in a multivariate linear regression model, HCV RNA levels were more strongly associated with HIV RNA levels than with CD4+ lymphocyte counts. However,!6 % of person-to-person variance was explained by the factors evaluated. Additional research is needed to ascertain what determines the level of HCV RNA in blood. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) principally replicates in the liver, and HCV RNA can be detected in the blood of chronically infected persons [1, 2]. In most persons, the quantity of HCV RNA peaks in the ®rst weeks of infection and then declines to a relativel