en عمومى General پژوهشي Original article <div> <p><strong>Background and Aims:</strong> Hepatitis C is a blood<em>-</em>borne virus that causes a liver inflammation. The prevalence of hepatitis C (HCV) in hemodialysis patients is more than the general population. Periodic screening of HCV in dialysis centers is necessary to control this viral disease.&nbsp; The aim of this study is the evaluation of HCV infection among hemodialysis patients living in Yazd province of Iran.</p> <p><strong>Materials and Methods:</strong> In this cross sectional study, two milliliters blood sample has been taken from each of 188 hemodialysis patients. Third-generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and RT-PCR methods were carried out for detecting HCV antibody and viral genome in patient sera. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients were collected and data were analyzed by Fisher&#39;s exact test and Mann&ndash;Whitney U test in SPSS software v.19.</p> <p><strong>Results:</strong> HCV-Ab was positive in 12 hemodialysis patients<strong>. </strong>Eight cases had a history of blood transfusion and four patients had a history of kidney transplantation. Anyone didn&rsquo;t have a history of skin tattooing or intravenous drug usage. HCV-RNA was positive in 4 cases and was negative in 8 patients with positive HCV-Ab.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>HCV prevalence using ELISA and RT-PCR tests among hemodialysis patients living in Yazd provenance of Iran is 6.3% and 2.1%, respectively. Risk factors are the hemodialysis duration (p<0.001) and kidney transplantation (p=0.005).</p> </div> Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Hepatitis C, Renal Dialysis 25 30 http://journal.isv.org.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-78-4&slc_lang=en&sid=1 M Baghbanian 10031947532846003260 10031947532846003260 Yes Department of Gastroenterology, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran AA Karimi-Bondarabadi 10031947532846003261 10031947532846003261 No Research Center of Hematology & Oncology and Genetics, Department of Internal Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran M Doosti 10031947532846003262 10031947532846003262 No Department of Virology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran M Shayestehpour 10031947532846003263 10031947532846003263 No Department of Virology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran H Salmanroghani 10031947532846003264 10031947532846003264 No Department of Gastroenterology, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran H Keyvani 10031947532846003265 10031947532846003265 No Department of Virology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran S Dastamouz 10031947532846003266 10031947532846003266 No Research Center of Hematology & Oncology and Genetics, Department of Internal Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran A Ahmadi 10031947532846003267 10031947532846003267 No Department of Microbiology, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Z Moallemi 10031947532846003268 10031947532846003268 No Dr Infection and tropical disease. Infection and tropical disease research center Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran M Shahidokht 10031947532846003269 10031947532846003269 No Department of pathology Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran