Table 1. Demographic characteristics of the subjects.

State	No	Gender	Age (yr)	HCV#	HCV RNA?	ALT*	Co-existing disease
self-limited infection	1	F	45	15.15	negative	12	no
	2	M	59	8.71	negative	15	no
	3	M	60	5.83	negative	18	fatty liver
	4	M	58	6.46	negative	12	fatty liver
	5	F	43	6.17	negative	13	no
chronic infection	6	F	45	14.76	4.91E+06	18	no
	7	M	50	15.19	4.88E+06	20	no
	8	M	39	12.75	1.31E+07	44	alcohol
	9	F	41	12.45	9.74E+05	26	no
	10	M	47	14.65	2.02E+04	134	no
	11	M	50	11.29	1.26E+07	31	fatty liver

Note: ^#HCV Abs detected by ELISA (S/Co, Abbott).

Virus loads were quantified through quantitative real-time Taqman PCR (IU/mL, Roche).

^*ALT (IU/mL);

“no” means no combined diseases.