Prevalence and epidemiology of hepatitis C infection in patients on peritoneal dialysis in France. French PD centers.

We performed a cross-sectional study to establish the hepatitis C virus (HCV) serologic status for all French patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD) on January 1, 1995. We listed a total of 1508 patients, and the exhaustiveness rate was about of 75% of the whole French PD population treated at this date. Only 47 of the 1508 patients were anti-HCV positive (HCV+): the global HCV prevalence was 3.12%. HCV+ patients were treated by PD for a longer time than HCV-patients (4 +/- 4 vs 2 +/- 2 years; p < 0.001); 89% of the HCV+ patients received blood transfusions; 60% had been previously treated by hemodialysis, and 26% previously received a kidney transplantation. In 49% of the HCV+ patients, HCV antibodies were discovered before the start of the peritoneal dialysis program, and a seroconversion was observed in only 4 (0.27%) of them during the PD treatment. All these patients received blood transfusion. In patients without past history of hemodialysis or transplantation (exclusively treated by PD), HCV prevalence was 1.5%, not far off that of the general population. Peritoneal dialysis seems not to be an additional risk factor for hepatitis C infection in France.