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Relationship of the Genomic Complexity of Hepatitis C Virus With Liver Disease Severity and Response to Interferon in Patients With Chronic HCV Genotype 1b Infection

table  1.   Basal Features and Complexity of the HVR1, as Determined by SSCP Analysis, in Patients With Genotype 1b HCV Chronic Infection According to the Severity of the Underlying Liver Disease
Chronic Hepatitis
Hepatic Cirrhosis
Mild (n = 41) Moderate (n = 45) Severe (n = 28) Compensated (n = 17) Decompensated (n = 17) With HCC (n = 20)
Age (years)  41.3 ± 12.7 47.6 ± 10.6 51 ± 10 51.9 ± 10.4 67.2 ± 6.4 65.5 ± 7.9
Sex (M/F) 23/18 26/19 21/7 10/7 10/7 12/8
Source of infection
  Blood transfusion 13 (31.7%) 15 (33.3%) 10 (35.7%) 6 (35.3%) 4 (23.5%) 11 (55%)
  I.V. drug abuse 4 (9.8%) 3 (6.7%) 2 (7.1%) 0  0  2 (10%)
  Unknown 24 (58.5%) 27 (60%) 16 (57.1%) 11 (64.7%) 13 (76.5%) 7 (35%)
AST (IU/L)  63.7 ± 43.6 108.8 ± 73.3  100.9 ± 47.9  137.6 ± 75.7  106.8 ± 51.2 110.5 ± 51.4
ALT (IU/L) 115.5 ± 62.9 190.1 ± 131.2 173.0 ± 113.7 209.5 ± 123.2 125.7 ± 87.6 106.4 ± 57.4
HCV-RNA (copies × 103/mL)  239 ± 282 433 ± 677 380 ± 309 417 ± 437  346 ± 349 475 ± 49
Number of SSCP bands  8.1 ± 3.9 8.0 ± 3.3 9.2 ± 3.3 8.0 ± 2.9  6.3 ± 2.9  9.5 ± 2.9
High complexity of quasispecies 14 (34.1%) 17 (37.8%) 14 (50%) 6 (35.3%) 3 (17.6%) 11 (55%)
Low complexity of quasispecies 27 (65.9%) 28 (62.2%) 14 (50%) 11 (64.7%) 14 (82.4%) 9 (45%)
NOTE. Quantitative data are expressed as means ± SD. Numbers in parenthesis represent percentages.
Complexity of quasispecies was defined as low (8 bands or less) or high (more than 8 bands), according to the median value of the number of bands in the SSCP analysis.
Abbreviations: HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma.

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