Evaluation Of Tear Film Function and Detection Of The Virus chronic Hepatitis C Patients

Infection with hepatitis C virus is a matter of great concern becauseof its potentially grave consequences and the absence of a definitivemethod for immunization or for treatment.HCV infection is extremely common throughout the worldhowever; its prevalence rate is somewhat puzzling.The highest prevalence rate of HCV infection in the world has beenreported among Egyptians (20-40%). In Egypt, schistosomal liver diseaseis significantly associated with HCV RNA and genotype 4 is thepredominant genotype.HCV RNA is mainly transmitted by the parenteral route. However,there is no identifiable source of infection in approximately 40% ofpatients with HCV infection. Subsequently different body fluids including the tear fluid shouldhe examined for the possible presence of the viral particles and itspossible potentiality for the transmission of the virus.Because of the frequency and the severity of the disease we tried to evaluate the tear film function and stability by using Schirmer’s test, BUTand Rose Bengal scoring test, and to examine the tear fluid of chronichepatitis C patients for the presence of the viral genome.The detection of HCV-RNA by nucleic acid amplificationtechnique was found to be the method of choice to detect the viral RNA, differentiate between ongoing and past infection and can be used formonitoring the course of HCV infection.