INCIDENCE, PREVALENCE, AND CLINICAL OUTCOME OF HEPATITIS GB-C VIRUS-INFECTION IN LIVER-TRANSPLANT PATIENTS

A novel RNA virus of the Flaviviridae family has been discovered recen tly and designated hepatitis GB-C virus (GBV-C). Previous studies have reported that GBV-C is associated with posttransfusion hepatitis, chr onic viral hepatitis, and cryptogenic hepatitis. However, the clinical significance of GBV-C infection has been questioned increasingly in p atients not undergoing transplantation. To investigate whether GBV-C i nfection under immunosuppression affects the clinical or the histologi cal outcome in liver transplant recipients, we determined the prevalen ce and incidence of GBV-C infections and the clinical and histological signs in patients after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). The p resence of GBV-C was tested in sera from patients before and in regula r intervals up to 6 years after OLT by nested reverse transcription-po lymerase chain reaction using primers derived from the NS3 region. A t otal of 72 patients were studied. Before OLT, 8 of 72 (11.1%) patients were positive for GBV-C. After OLT, 7 of 8 (87.5%) remained positive. Of 64 patients who were negative for GBV-C before OLT, 23 became posi tive after OLT, resulting in a de novo rate of GBV-C infection of 35.9 %. We could not detect a higher rate of histologically proven hepatiti s in GBV-C-positive patients (29.1%) than in GBV-C negative patients ( 14.6%, P > 0.057). Comparing GBV-C positive with GBV-C-negative liver transplant patients, we could not find any differences in age, gender, liver function tests, number of blood transfusions, histological degr ee of hepatitis, or number of rejection episodes. Survival was not neg atively influenced by GBV-C positivity. In conclusion, the presence of GBV-C did not influence the clinical or histological outcome in liver transplant patients. Copyright (C) 1998 by the American Association f or the Study of Liver Diseases.