HEPATITIS-C VIRUS IS NOT RECOVERABLE FROM LIVER-TISSUE IN CRYPTOGENICCIRRHOSIS - FAILURE TO IDENTIFY HEPATITIS-C VIRUS-RNA USING REVERSE TRANSCRIPTION-MEDIATED POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been used to study liver biopsy ti ssue in patients with known or suspected hepatitis C virus (HCV). Rece nt studies of cryptogenic cirrhosis using PCR have been based on study of sera, and HCV has not been shown. The failure to show HCV in patie nts so studied has left unanswered the question of whether or not pati ents with cryptogenic cirrhosis could still harbor the virus in the li ver. The authors studied liver tissue, obtained at the time of orthopi c liver transplantation from 10 patients clinically diagnosed as havin g end-stage liver disease without demonstrable origin, so-called crypt ogenic cirrhosis, using reverse transcription (RT)-PCR to try to recov er HCV-RNA. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue was used. For com parison, the authors also studied similarly obtained samples from 10 p atients with typical hepatitis C-associated cirrhosis and 10 patients with end-stage liver disease resulting from autoimmune hepatitis. The authors recovered HCV-RNA from 9 of 10 livers from patients with cirrh osis resulting from HCV, and 3 of 10 livers from patients with autoimm une hepatitis. HCV-RNA was not recovered from any of the livers of the 10 patients designated as having cryptogenic cirrhosis. Copyright (C) 1996 by W.B. Saunders Company