Abstract

Exposure to blood transfusion was associated with increase in the risk of transfusion transmitted (TT) viral infection and this led to the hypothesis that TT virus may be related to undefined post-transfusion hepatitis. Therefore in this study the prevalence of TT virus DNA in volunteer blood donors in relation to Alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartateaminotransferase (AST) levels were evaluated. In a cross sectional study the blood samples were randomly collected from 499 volunteer blood donors. The genome of TT virus infection was evaluated in studied populations by an in-house semi-nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol. Some possible risk factors of TT virus infection including: age, gender, and AST and ALT levels were collected from volunteer blood donors. TT viral DNA was detected in the serum of 66 of 499 (13.4%) volunteer blood donors. The AST and ALT had significantly higher levels in volunteer blood donors with TT viremia in comparing with uninfected population. The adolescence (p=0.219) and gender (p=0.874) were not significantly correlated with increasing the prevalence of TT viremia. The moderate prevalence of TT viremia was diagnosed in volunteer blood donors in this part of Iran for the first time. Also define a significant association between TT virus infection and elevation of liver enzymes emphasize on the importance of this viral infection in undefined hepatic disorders that should be confirmed in completed studies.

Key words: Transfusion transmitted (TT) virus, alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), volunteer blood donors.