Abstract:
Hepatitis C viral (HCV) infection is amongst the serious health issues in Pakistan. The early case
recognition and hence its management via interferon and anti-virals can be helpful to reduce the high
morbidity and mortality rates from the said infection in Pakistan. Objective of this study was to assess
the variation in different hematological parameters amongst the newly diagnosed Hepatitis C viral
(HCV) patients by blood complete picture examination. A Descriptive study was carried out on
randomly selected 182 patients at the Pathology Department of Al-Nafees Medical College and
Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan. A simple random sampling technique was adopted for this study. It
was an open study and patients of age range between 18 to 40 years were included. An informed
consent followed by a questionnaire filling was the important prerequisites of study in order to include
or exclude the specific patient. The samples were finally analyzed by immune chromatographic test
(ICT) for the detection of anti-HCV antibodies. The blood complete picture examination was carried
out to assess the variation in hematological parameters. Out of the total 182 patients, 122 were found
to be positive for anti-HCV antibodies presence. The results of current study had shown that 11.98 +
0.003 gm/dl and 123 +0.001 mm3 were the mean values of hemoglobin (Hb) and platelets
respectively. While 8.11 + 0.001 mm3 was the mean value for TLC. It was concluded that
thrombocytopenia is the most common feature observed in newly diagnosed HCV positive cases.
