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). Amplification step was performed using AgPath-ID one-step assay according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Applied Biosystems-Life Technologies Corporation, CA).