PREVALENCE AND CLINICAL-FEATURES OF HEPATITIS-G VIRUS-INFECTION IN BONE-MARROW ALLOGRAFT RECIPIENTS

To study the prevalence and clinical features of hepatitis G virus (HG V)/GB virus C (GBV-C) infection in bone marrow transplantation (BMT), we examined frozen serum samples from 95 bone marrow allograft patient s for HGV/GBV-C RNA by RT-PCR. Twenty-eight out of 95 (29.5 %) were po sitive and 14 of the HGV(+) patients were already positive before tran splantation. The mean numbers of blood donors to whom the HGV(-) and H GV(+) populations were exposed before BMT were not significantly diffe rent (Kruskal-Wallis test, P = 0.08, NS) but did reveal that the HGV() population had been transfused more often. Moreover, all but one of the patients who were HGV(+) before graft, had had hematological disea ses which needed heavy transfusion protocols suggesting, a role of blo od products in HGV transmission. Fifty out of the 95 patients received Gammagard intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) batches suspected of havi ng transmitted HCV. However, no significant difference appeared betwee n these recipients and those receiving other IVIG. Despite their immun odeficiency, no clinical or biological evidence of liver disease poten tially linked to HGV infection has as yet been observed. The clinical outcome, in terms of acute GVHD, chronic GVHD or veno-occlusive diseas e was similar in HGV(+) and HGV(-) recipients suggesting the absence o f adverse effects of HGV infection on the early outcome of allogenic B MT. Long-term evolution remains to be prospectively studied.