Abstract
The risk of polytransfused patients for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is likely to extend to another recently identified member of the Flaviviridae, hepatitis C virus (HGV). We investigated the prevalence of HGV in 40 adult Italian patients with transfusion-dependent thalassaemia and evaluated the clinical significance of HGV infection. HGV-RNA was detected in 9/40 patients (22.5%). HGV infection was significantly associated with HCV viraemia (P = 0.0012), with all patients positive for HGV being also viraemic for HCV. Overall, the clinical picture of patients with HCV/HGV co- infection was not different from that of patients with isolated HCV. However, patients co-infected with both viruses had lower values of alanine- transferase (P = 0.035) and a lower titre of HCV viraemia (P = 0.042) in the absence of other evident factors which could influence the clinical expression of HCV infection. In conclusion, HGV is highly prevalent among Italian polytransfused patients. No evidence of a clinically significant pathogenic role for HGV in liver disease could be found in these patients. In a subset of cases of possible interference of HGV with HCV infection was observed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 904-907 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | British Journal of Haematology |
Volume | 97 |
Issue number | 4 |
Publication status | Published - 1997 |
Keywords
- Hepatitis C virus
- Hepatitis G virus
- Thalassaemia major
- Viral hepatitis
- Viral interference
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Hematology