Prevalence of occult HCV infection in hemodialysis and kidney-transplanted patients: a systematic review

Abstract

Aim: We performed a systematic review for determining the prevalence rate of occult HCV infection (OCI) among hemodialysis and kidney-transplanted (KT) patients. Methods: Electronic databases were searched with appropriate search strategies. We considered positive result for tests of HCV-RNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cell, ultracentrifuged serum or hepatocytes in the absence of HCV-RNA and anti-HCV antibody in patients’ sera as the definition of OCI. Results: Two studies reported OCI prevalence rate of 0 and 2% among KT patients. Results of OCI prevalence rates among hemodialysis patients varied between 0 and 45% in ten different included studies showing a great heterogeneity. Conclusion: Although we still need more evidence to support our results, they suggest that checking OCI in hemodialysis or KT patients with unexplained signs of liver diseases may have some benefit.