Health care workers are at risk of acquiring transmissible diseases. Controversial results have been reported about HCV. The aims of the present study are to assess the prevalence of HCV in health care workers in Pistoia General Hospital (central Italy) and to compare prevalence with other groups, particularly with a sample of the general population. Serum samples collected from 511 health care employees engaged in direct clinical task and 222 clerical and nurse school attendees have been tested by ELISA and confirmed by RIBA. Total seroprevalence was 3.8%:4.7% in the first group; 1.8% in the second group. The data showed a slight increase in prevalence by age and not by length of stay in the health care workers' group. Comparison of HCV prevalence with blood donors from the province of Pistoia and the general population from Sersale (Catanzaro, southern Italy), restricted to under-40 subjects, indicates an increasing trend in this order: Blood donors, general population, clerical and nursing school attendees, health care workers' group with the highest value (3.4%). A cohort study is needed to evaluate pattern of HCV seroconversion.
An IgM 11-oxycorticosteroid-dependent antibody was identified in the serum of a patient with bladder malignancy, which at 4-37 °C reacted with all the 11-oxycorticosteroids tested but not with desoxycorticosterone, testosterone, nortestosterone and progesterone. The resulting drug-antidrug antibody complex combines nonspecifically with red blood cells causing agglutination. This reactivity is enhanced both by acid pH and by high drug solution concentrations as well as by ficin test. The antibody is complement-independent and has no blood group specificity. No in vivo or in vitro hemolysis was observed.
An IgM 11-oxycorticosteroid-dependent antibody was identified in the serum of a patient with bladder malignancy, which at 4-37 degrees C reacted with all the 11-oxycorticosteroids tested but not with desoxycorticosterone, testosterone, nortestosterone and progesterone. The resulting drug-antidrug antibody complex combines nonspecifically with red blood cells causing agglutination. This reactivity is enhanced both by acid pH and by high drug solution concentrations as well as by ficin test. The antibody is complement-independent and has no blood group specificity. No in vivo or in vitro hemolysis was observed.
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