Table 1. Clinical and virological characteristics of ten hospitalized patients infected with HCV 1b.

Patient ID	Sex	Age (years)	Anti-HCVb	Alanine aminotransferase activity (ALT) levels at the time of HCV-RNA detection [U L-1] (normal values 10–40 U L-1)	Viral load [IU mL-1]
1	F	26	negative	540	6.9x101
2	M	49	negative	481	2.5x104
3a	M	73	positive	N/A	1.6x107
4a	F	80	negative	498	6.3x106
5a	M	55	negative	751	1.6x107
6a	M	66	negative	621	1.2x107
7	F	68	negative	N/A	1.7x104
8	F	63	negative	N/A	3.7x106
9	M	64	positive	N/A	7.4x104
10	M	54	negative	N/A	1.2x108

N/A—not available

^a first patients to be diagnosed with clinically overt acute HCV infection

^bElecsys Anti-HCV assay (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany)