Infection with hepatitis C virus has elicited considerable interest for its role in a spectrum of extrahepatic manifestation. Substantial evidence has implicated a causative role for hepatitis C virus (HCV) in many Of skin diseases.
This study was conducted to esti­mate the prevalence of HCV infection and cryoglobulinaemia in patients with leukocytcclastic vasculitis {LcV} and to assess the immunologic changes associated with this disease.
The present study included 39 adult patients (14 males and 25 fe­males, with mean age of 44.1±12.1 years) had LcV and 40 adult heaithy controls. All patients were subjected
to thorough history taking, clinical examination abdominal ultrasound and full laboratory investigations in­cluding urine and stool analysis, com­plete blood picture, liver function tests, kidney function tests and pro-thrombine time. HCV antibodies were determined by third-generation ELISA then polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed on seropositive cases in test group and controls. Assay of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and soluble IL-2 receptor (slL-2R) and sol­uble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (slCAM-1) were performed.
The prevalence of HCV antibodies was 46.2% in LcV patients versus 17.5% of the controls. However with PCR reaction 38.5% of LcV patients