What can a drop of blood tell us?

Hepatitis C is now considered one of the most severe infectious diseases worldwide. It is caused by an RNA-containing virus, which is one of the main causes of liver disease. Often, the symptoms of a sick person either do not manifest at all, or manifest themselves, but in a hidden form - increased fatigue, nausea. 

It is quite difficult to cure hepatitis C definitively. Some time after infection, in 80% of cases, it turns into a chronic form. Further development of the disease in one in five leads to cirrhosis, which, in the worst case, leads to hepatocellular carcinoma. According to experts, the number of hepatitis C virus carriers worldwide reaches 700 million people.

You can get hepatitis C from both a sick person and carrier of the virus, even if it has not yet manifested itself. And with such a prevalence of the disease, timely high-precision diagnosis of hepatitis C is an extremely urgent topical issue. Now there are several main stages in the diagnosis of hepatitis C. At the first stage, a serological test is usually performed to detect antibodies to the hepatitis C virus, which is based on immunological diagnostic methods (ELISA, ECL). The very fact of the presence of antibodies only indicates that a person is infected with hepatitis C, but it is impossible to clarify whether it is the consequences of a previous infection, a chronic form of the disease or its acute course.

At the same time, during the course of hepatitis C disease, there is so-called "seronegative window" - i.e. antibodies appear in the blood of a sick person no earlier than 2-3 weeks after the onset of the disease. There are even cases when such a period lasts up to 3 months, and throughout this time serological tests give a negative result, despite the presence of the virus in the blood. Immunochemical tests (ELISA, ECL) are suitable for screening (primary examination) of representatives of all risk groups and are especially recommended as a primary diagnosis for patients with clinical signs of liver disease.

Negative test results are highly likely to exclude hepatitis C. However, this is not enough for patients with immunodeficiency and those on hemodialysis. There is also a danger of falling into the period of the notorious "seronegative window". In these cases, additional examination for the presence of hepatitis C virus RNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is necessary.

At the moment, special molecular tests have been developed that allow using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to determine the presence and amount of genetic material, i.e. hepatitis C virus RNA in the blood. PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, is one of the main methods of molecular diagnostics of viruses. Qualitative detection of RNA indicates the stage of active replication of the virus - i.e. its active reproduction, which allows to proceed to the next stage - the quantitative test and the process of genotyping of the virus, necessary for the correct choice of treatment.

After the presence of hepatitis C virus RNA in human blood is proven, the same molecular tests are also an indicator of the effectiveness of the prescribed treatment. In other words, treatment in which viral RNA is not detected 24 weeks after discontinuation of medication is considered effective. At the same time, the duration of the course of treatment is calculated according to data on the amount of hepatitis C virus RNA in the blood - the so-called "viral load" indicator.

Thus, the quantitative determination of hepatitis C virus in blood plasma is the most effective method for diagnosing the disease, choosing therapy and for further monitoring - monitoring the course of the disease - regardless of which drug or treatment regimen is chosen. It is this test that allows the attending physician to select the best treatment regimen for each patient.

We remind you that all methods of hepatitis C detection are available today in the largest independent clinical diagnostic laboratory OLYMP.