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