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BackgroundEgypt has the highest prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the world. In 2015, the prevalence of HCV RNA was found to be 7.0%.(1 The prevalence of HCV was studied in Rheumatoid arthritis in few studies(,2,3 but to our knowledge, no previous work studied it in other rheumatologic patients.ObjectivesThis study aims at detecting the prevalence of subclinical HCV infection in different rheumatologic disease groups in Egypt.MethodsConsecutive patients with different rheumatologic diseases from seven- geographically different- rheumatology departments were prospectively studied. None of the patients was known to have previous HCV infection. Patients’ serum samples were screened for the presence of anti-HCV antibodies. Patients with positive serology were further evaluated for the presence of HCV ribonucleic acid by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).Results1454 rheumatic patients (1242 (85.4%) women, 212 (14.5%) men) with mean age[SD] of 43.7 [12.7] years were included in this study. Both anti-HCV serology and HCV RNA were positive in 124 patients (8.5%). Positive PCR for HCV was significantly higher in the age group of 40 to <60 years (p<0.0001) versus other age groups. No statistically significant difference in HCV PCR positivety was found in relation to gender, specific rheumatologic disease, comorbidities or disease duration among studied patients. AST and ALT serum levels were significantly higher in the HCV PCR positive patients (p<0.0001 and p=0.002 respectively).Abstract SAT0709 Table 1Number and percentage of positive HCV PCR and statistical significant differences among geographic areas (P1), among different diseases (P2), and between age groups(P3)Geographic areaAnti HCV PCR PositiveNo=124 (8.5%)Total No. No=1454P value P1 Assiut48 (9.5%)504 (34.7%) 0.947Tanta14 (6.9%)202 (13.9%)AL-Behera14 (9.6%)146 (10.0%)Cairo24 (6.9%)346 (23.8%)Aswan10 (8.2%)122 (8.4%)Sharkeya14 (10.4%)134 (9.2%)Diagnosed DiseasesP2-Rheumatoid arthritis82 (8.4%)974 (67.1%) 0.053-Systemic Lupus erythrematosis10 (5.1%)196 (13.5%)-Scleroderma0 (0.0%)38 (2.6%)-Behcet’s Disease2 (3.7%)54 (3.7%)-Crystal arthropathy4 (8.7%)46 (3.2%)-Others26 (18.1%)144 (9.9)Disease durationP3<5 years44 (8.1%)546 (37.6%) 0.9245–10 years52 (9.0%)578 (39.8%)>10 years28 (8.5%)330 (22.7%)ConclusionsThe detection of subclinical HCV infection in 8.5% of rheumatologic patients in Egypt with significant higher level in the middle age group, draws attention to the importance of screening for HCV in such population for early detection and intervention.Disclosure of InterestNone declared