A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY OF TRANSFUSION-TRANSMITTED GB-VIRUS-C INFECTION -SIMILAR FREQUENCY BUT DIFFERENT CLINICAL PRESENTATION COMPARED WITH HEPATITIS-C VIRUS

Citation
Jt. Wang et al., A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY OF TRANSFUSION-TRANSMITTED GB-VIRUS-C INFECTION -SIMILAR FREQUENCY BUT DIFFERENT CLINICAL PRESENTATION COMPARED WITH HEPATITIS-C VIRUS, Blood, 88(5), 1996, pp. 1881-1886
Citations number
23
Categorie Soggetti
Hematology
Journal title
BloodACNP
ISSN journal
00064971
Volume
88
Issue
5
Year of publication
1996
Pages
1881 - 1886
Database
ISI
SICI code
0006-4971(1996)88:5<1881:APOTGI>2.0.ZU;2-T
Abstract
To study the incidence and outcome of GB virus C (GBV-C) infection in blood recipients, Serum samples collected in a prospective study were examined for GBV-C RNA by a nested polymerase chain reaction assay. Am ong the 400 adults who underwent cardiac surgery, 40 were positive for GBV-C RNA, including six whose pretransfusion sera were already posit ive and seven coinfected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) during transfusi on. The risk of transmission was estimated to be similar to 0.46% per donor, GBV-C viremia was detectable 1 week after transfusion and could persist for 8 years. However, no evident symptoms or signs were noted in the 25 patients infected by GBV-C alone, and the average peak seru m alanine aminotransferase activity was 31 IU/L only (range, 12 to 123 ), with persistently normal levels in 20 patients. In the seven patien ts coinfected with HCV, the clinical courses of posttransfusion hepati tis were similar to those infected by HCV alone. In eight patients wit h posttransfusion non-A similar to E hepatitis, only one was positive for GBV-C RNA, Sixty samples were chosen to test hepatitis G virus (HG V) sequences, 26 of the 30 GBV-C positives were positive for HGV RNA i n contrast to none of the 30 GBV-C negative samples. In conclusion, GB V-C can be transmitted by transfusion in similar to 9% of patients who underwent cardiac surgery. Nevertheless, this virus does not seem to cause classic hepatitis in most instances. (C) 1996 by The American So ciety of Hematology.