الفهرس 
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Abstract
Hepatitis C is a major health problem in Egypt and the entire continent of Africa. This infection can lead to an acute or silent course of liver disease, progressing from liver impairment to cirrhosis and decompensated liver failure or hepatocellular carcinoma in 20-30 years period. The present study was designed to assess the prevalence of HCV antibodies among inpatients in comparison to medical staff and blood donors in Mansoura University Hospital. This study comprised 3255 subjects classified as follows: Group (I) 700 inpatients, Group (II) 111 medical staff and Group (III) 2444 blood donors. All participants were subjected to the following tests detection of HCV antibodies, detection of HBs Ag and detection of HIV. Furthermore, the following additional laboratory investigations were carried out to the inpatients group and medical staff group complete blood picture, prothrombin time, liver function tests (serum albumin, ALT, AST, total and direct serum bilirubin), serum creatinine, serum blood glucose, indirect haemagglutination test for schistosomiasis and urine and stool analysis. Results: The prevalence of HCV antibodies among the inpatients groups was 49.4 % which is much higher than the other two groups. The prevalence of HCV antibodies in males was higher than females. There was an increase in the prevalence of HCV antibodies among the age ranges. There was no correlation between schistosomiasis and HCV antibodies. The liver function tests were not good indicator for HCV infection. The prevalence of HBs Ag was very low and none of the cases were positive for HIV. The prevalence of HCV antibodies in the inpatients group differs according to the medical condition of cases. It could be observed that the percentage is higher in the chronic diseases as GIT medical cases, diabetic, renal and neurological cases. The results of hematological parameters of CBC in the inpatients group show no statistically significant difference between HCV negative and positive cases except in the GIT medical patients. Conclusion: the prevalence of HCV antibodies is much higher in the inpatients. Also the prevalence increased with age, male gender, past history of antishistosomal parentral injection and chronic diseases. Recommendations: The HCV antibodies determination should be done as a routine investigation for the inpatients, particularly the chronic cases and wider scale study including more patients, in the diseases with high HCV prevalence, is highly recommended to study the exact relation of HCV infection with such disorders.