HEPATIC HISTOLOGY IN HEPATITIS-C VIRUS CARRIERS COINFECTED WITH HEPATITIS-G VIRUS

Background-A novel flavivirus has been described recently and designat ed hepatitis G virus (HGV). The virus is transmitted by the parenteral route but it is uncertain whether it is associated with chronic liver disease because Liver biopsy is difficult to justify in this group. A ims-To examine histological features of liver biopsy in patients infec ted with hepatitis C virus (HCV) according to the presence or absence of HCV and HGV RNA. Methods-One hundred and thirty one consecutive HCV carriers undergoing staging liver biopsy were studied retrospectively . In each, HCV RNA and HGV RNA were detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction on serum samples collected at the time of bi opsy. The presence of each RNA was correlated with histological featur es blind to the RNA results; individual histological features of infla mmation or fibrosis were scored separately, Results-Nineteen patients were positive for both HGV and HCV RNA in serum, 91 were positive for HCV RNA alone, two were positive for HGV RNA alone, and 19 were negati ve for both RNA species. Neither age nor sex differed between the grou ps; a greater proportion of intravenous drug users were HGV RNA positi ve, but this was not statistically significant. There was no effect of HGV coinfection on the stage of fibrosis or any other histological pa rameter except steatosis; patients with HCV and HGV RNA had a higher m ean score for fat than those patients with HCV RNA alone (p<0.05). Con clusions-HGV coinfection has no important effects on histological feat ures in chronic HCV carriers. It is unlikely that HGV infection causes chronic liver disease.