HCV molecular diagnosis and quantification of HCV-RNA
HCV diagnosis was determined by using the Murex third generation
anti-HCV ELISA assay (version 4.0 USA) that utilizes antigens from the
core, NS3, NS4 and NS5 regions of the virus. All the study subjects were
tested by quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qPCR) for detection of current
HCV infection and quantification of the HCV viral load using QIAamp®
Viral RNA purification kit (QIAGEN, USA). The amplification step was
conducted using AgPath-ID one-step assay as instructed by the
manufacturer (Applied Biosystems-Life Technologies Corporation, CA).