hepatitis c antibody negative.

[turab]

If somebody has positive hepatitis c antibodies, how and  when they will  become  negative.
This patient is  asymptomatic, his  LFTs,CBC,ESR, Urine  D/R and Ultrasound  whole abdomen is within  normal limits.

[Jakied]

If you cleared Hcv from your blood stream, you will, probably, have the Hcv antibodies

for a LONG time, maybe the rest of your life.  This is not a health concern but you cannot

donate organs or blood.

[scruples]

sorry forgot to mention abt antibodies. They normally (in more than 95% cases) remain detectable throughout the life even you have cleared HCV. No need to worry abt those

[scruples]

I also support maria's advice as many patients of HCV remain asymptomatic and his/her LFT, CBC urine test and ultro sound reflects normal results. Even in my case my abdomin ultra sound, urine test, LFT , CBC including ESR were within normal limits. However i was feeling some symptoms like fatigued and mood swing but one cant relate these symptoms to HCV directly as your mood also changes due to tension etc.

If antibody test is positive then you should go for HCV PCR test whether Qualitative or Quantitative. Qualitative PCR test is more sensitive in terms of detection limit and it just tells whether you have HCV virus/ active viral replication in your blood or not while Quantitative test is less sensitive and it tells the no. of virus in a given sample. However, qualitative is less expensive in asian countries and normally it is more common on initial stage. Once it is decided that you have active virus in your blood then go for genotype testing. If the result of HCV PCR is undetectable then no need of genotyping.

Pls dont just rely on ultrasound, CBC etc only. The exact etection of HCv is possible from PCR only. Moreover only Liver ultrasound didnt reflect that liver is un-demaged due to HCV etc and biopsy can tell the liver demage. Howevere the need of biopsy will be assessed by doctors coz again its very expensive. The thing you need now is PCR test.

[Marcia2202]

The hep c antibodies will always stay in the blood. Even though the person clears an acute hep c or has successfully completed treatment.

It's kind of like when you are vaccinated or have had hep A, you will always test positive for hep A antibodies.

The thing to look for to see if the person actually has hepatitis C is to do a HCV PCR test to detect the actual Viral Load in the blood. One should also simultaneously perform a genotype test.

If the HCV PCR and genotyping return negative, it is advised to retest after 6 months to be 100% sure that the person actually is not infected with hep c.

If the person comes back with a measurable viral load and a genotype, the possibility of treatment should be discussed

Hope this helped.

Marcia