Table 1. Characteristics of HCV-positive and HCV-negative patients. Figures in parentheses are percentages. HD = Hemodialysis. Student's test. χ2 test (Yates with Kimball observation). Sir, Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been recently recognised as an emerging problem in dialysis patients. The development [1] of a serological assay to detect anti-HCV antibodies has provided an opportunity to expand our knowledge of the epidemiology and natural history of this entity. We have studied the

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... revalence of anti-HCV in a population of 177 patients on chronic hemodialysis using an enzyme immunoas-say (HCV antibody ELISA test system, Ortho Diagnostics) based on the HCV C-100 antigen, and all assays were run in duplicate. We have correlated the results with age, time on hemodialysis, number of transfused and polytransfused patients and previous kidney transplantations. Moreover, GOT and GPT serum levels, determined by spectrophotome-try every 3 months, were evaluated in a 15-year retrospective study. A value higher than twice the upper reference level was considered to be significant. Eighteen patients (10%) were anti-HCV-positive; in this group (table 1) , time on hemodialysis, number of polytransfused patients, and number of previous kidney transplantations were significantly higher than in the negative group. Most of the patients who were anti-HCV positive had raised transami-nases, while there was no difference between the two groups regarding persistent (HBs-Ag-positive) and previous (anti-HBsand/or an-ti-HBc-and/or anti-HBe-positive) HBV infection. Our results show that: (a) the prevalence of anti-HCV positivity in hemodialysis patients in our Unit is in agreement with other Italian authors [2]; (b) anti-HCV seropositivi-