The hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a source of concern in rheumatology because of its extrahepatic manifestations. Many studies have reported association between HCV infection and rheumatological manifestations such as: musculoskeletal pain, essential mixed cryoglobulinemia, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome, vasculitis, glomerulonephritis, Raynaud's phenomenon, polyarteritis nodosa, myositis, autoantibody and other connective tissue diseases. In previous studies developed in our region, prevalences of 0.9%, 1.4%, 1.8% and 2.0% were detected among pregnant women, blood donors, leprosy patients and health professionals, respectively. OBJECTIVE: to investigate the prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in Goiânia, Brazil. METHODS: 175 patients were interviewed and had blood samples tested for HCV antibodies (anti-HCV) by a third generation enzyme linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA). RNA-HCV was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with primers complementary the 5' non-coding region of the HCV genoma, in all anti-HCV positive serum samples and genotyped by a line probe assay. RESULTS: an overall HCV infection prevalence of 2.3% (4/175) was found. Genotyping of RNA-HCV positive samples revealed HCV type 1 in 3 (75%) and type 3 in 1 (25%) patient. Clinical course was favorable in all HCV positive patients, except one, who died due to renal insuficiency related to lupus nephritis. CONCLUSIONS: anti-HCV prevalence among patients with SLE was slitghly higher than the prevanlence observed in pregnant women, healthy blood donors and leprosy patients, and similar to health professionals.
hepatitis C virus; rheumatic disease; systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
