en عمومى General پژوهشي Original article <div style="border-style: solid none border-top-color: windowtext border-top-width: 1pt border-bottom-color: windowtext border-bottom-width: 1pt padding: 1pt 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr unicode-bidi: embed border: none padding: 0in"><b>Background and Aims:</b> Chronic hepatitis C is one of the most important etiologies of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma worldwide. Clinical condition of hepatic patients and the outcome of chemotherapy are under impact of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes. Therefore, HCV genotyping is important for prediction of success of chemotherapy and progression of liver diseases. <!--stripped--><!--stripped--></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr unicode-bidi: embed border: none padding: 0in"><b>Methods:</b> In this article the distribution of HCV genotypes detected in a population in Ahvaz, southwest of Iran is reported. This was a study on 80 patients suffering from chronic hepatitis C.&nbsp; Following extraction of the viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) patient&rsquo;s sera, from it was used as the template for the synthesis of complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA). The amplified fragments of HCV cDNAs by nested PCR were subjected to restriction enzyme analysis. Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RLFP) was performed on all HCV isolates to determine the subgenotype. <!--stripped--><!--stripped--></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr unicode-bidi: embed border: none padding: 0in"><b>Results:</b> Out of 80 HCV positive samples 43 (53.8%) were genotype 1a and 37 (46.2%) were genotype 3a. The dominant genotype of HCV isolated from patients suffering from chronic hepatitis C in <st1:place w:st="on">Ahvaz</st1:place> was genotype 1a. Therefore, interferon therapy may not help some of these patients against HCV infection.<!--stripped--><!--stripped--></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr unicode-bidi: embed border: none padding: 0in"><b>Conclusion: </b>It is suggested to perform HCV genotyping prior to interferon therapy. Besides, the result suggests that the major route of HCV infection in Ahvaz population is the use of contaminated syringe.<!--stripped--><!--stripped--></p> </div> HCV genotype, hepatitis, RFLP 12 16 http://journal.isv.org.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-11&slc_lang=en&sid=1 M Hamidi-Fard 10031947532846002544 10031947532846002544 Yes Department of Virology, Ahvaz Jondishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran A Samarbaf-Zadeh 10031947532846002545 10031947532846002545 No Department of Virology, Ahvaz Jondishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran M Makvandi 10031947532846002546 10031947532846002546 No Department of Virology, Ahvaz Jondishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran E Hajiani 10031947532846002547 10031947532846002547 No Department of Gastroenterology, Ahvaz Imam Khomeini Hospital, Ahvaz, Iran