Hepatitis C Support Group
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral disease which can cause liver inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver cancer. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is spread by blood-to-blood contact with an infected person's blood. Many people with HCV infection have no symptoms and are unaware of the need to seek treatment. Hepatitis C infects an estimated 150-200 million people worldwide.
Since my GI hasn't seen fit to return one of my three phone calls over this, I thought I would ask you folks to see what you think.
My labs in Oct (pre TX) showed a viral load of
2,780,000. I took new tests two weeks ago (again, pre TX) that showed a viral load of
279,000. That's a two million drop. I started treatment last Sunday.
So, the question is, is a drop like that nomral or is one of the tests off, and if so, which one?
Rob
My labs in Oct (pre TX) showed a viral load of
2,780,000. I took new tests two weeks ago (again, pre TX) that showed a viral load of
279,000. That's a two million drop. I started treatment last Sunday.
So, the question is, is a drop like that nomral or is one of the tests off, and if so, which one?
Rob
absolutely. I had a biopsy done and liver enzymes have been out of whack for 15 years, just wasn't diagnosed back then. The first Quantitative RNA test was done right after the biopsy. Maybe I'll call again tomorrow and leave a message saying I want to make a payment...that should encourage them to call!
Rob
There are two ways in which Labs today express HCV viral loads. One way is copies per million( copies/mL), and the other is International units ( IU/mL).
Low HCV viral load is considered less than 2,000,000 copies/mL, or less than 800,000 IU/mL.
There is no standard conversion formula for converting the amount of HCV RNA reported in copies per milliliter to the amount reported in International Units. The conversion factor ranges from about one to about five HCV RNA copies per IU. Usually the lab report will list the conversion from IU/mL to copies/mL.
Giving the viral load in IU probably soon will replace all other ways to express the viral load - until recently it was expressed most frequently in eq or Meq. But at the moment and in old lab reports a wide variety of ways to give the viral load still can be found.
The IU = International Unit for the hepatitis C viral load is a unit more or less arbitrarily fixed. Labs now can take part in international comparison tests using a calibrated sample and thereby normalize their results to an international standard. So, in the future results from different laboratories should be directly comparable.
For converting numbers from eq to IU and vice versa, different labs use different conversion factors, in the range from 2 to 5 viruses per IU. If you do not know the factor that your lab uses, using a factor of three might be reasonable. That means: Viral loads given in eq/ml have to be divided by three to get the viral load in IU/ml. And, viral loads given in IU/ml have to be multiplied by three to get the result in eq/ml.
(Being that I'm a gambling man), I would say there was an error in the way it was expressed. ( Scared Rabbit is right, that big of a drop that fast would be extremely rare without tx.) The numbers you gave us would be right in line with the difference of the two ways of expressing it.
Once again I must throw in that I'm not a Doctor ( don't even play one on t.v. lol), so definitely run that by someone who is if it is really bothering you.
God Bless, and I hope you are doing well on tx.
Either way, your viral load is low , and that is good thing.
I went to another lab and retested and it came back at 3.6 mil. a week later. Given the stress of that week, and wiggle factor, I'd say the 33 million was a typo, funny though, the lab actually backed the Dr. although they did offer to do a retest, but I figured they would doctor that too. 6th sense in play there.
Since I was Dx, my viral load has jumped around, so I'm not sure what that medical report was saying that scaredrabbit posted.
It started at 1.7 mil, went to 1.8 mil, I did nutritional IV's and it jumped to 5 mil. I did MMS for 6 weeks and it dropped to 3.3 mil. Currently it has tested 6.3 mil twice. 6 months apart.
I do know that with a viral load of more than 2 mil, they have to dilute the sample and retest. So it takes longer to get the results back.
Mak