Table 1.
Characteristics of the study subjects.
Figure 1.
Flow chart of distribution of subjects enrolled in the study based on presence of serological markers of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV).
Subjects positive for HBsAg and/or HBV-DNA were considered carriers of HBV. Subjects positive for anti-HCV and HCV-RNA or anti-HCV positive confirmed by the RIBA assay even though negative for HCV-RNA were considered HCV infection. Subjects HBsAg negative, anti-HBc positive with or without anti-HBs and HBV-DNA negative with normal alanine aminotransferase levels were considered previously HBV infected and naturally immunized. Abbreviations: anti-HIV, HIV antibodies; anti-HCV, antibodies against HCV; HBsAg, hepatitis B surface antigen; anti-HBc, hepatitis B core antibodies; pos, positive; neg, negative.
Table 2.
HCV-RNA detection in plasma and PBMCs.
Table 3.
Serological and virological characteristics of subjects with occult hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.
Table 4.
Timing of blood sampling and HCV-RNA results on PBMCs during follow-up of OCI subjects.