HEPATITIS-C VIRUS LIVER-DISEASE IN WOMEN INFECTED WITH CONTAMINATED ANTI-D IMMUNOGLOBULIN

Screening for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is carried out by dete ction of antibodies to the virus (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (E LISA) and recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA)) with confirmation by id entification of HCV RNA genome in serum (polymerase chain reaction (PC R)). We describe the histological features on liver biopsy in 88 women with chronic HCB infection (serum positive on ELISA, RIBA and PCR) ac quired from virus contaminated anti-D immunoglobulin. For the majority of these patients the time interval from virus infection to presentat ion was between 17 and 18 years. We separately assessed necroinflammat ory disease activity and architectural features on liver biopsy and ap plied a scoring system which permitted semi-quantitative documentation of abnormal features, Only three women showed liver biopsies within n ormal limits (+/- focal steatosis), The remaining 85 cases showed a pr edominantly mild or moderate degree of disease activity with interface hepatitis (56.8% of cases), spotty necrosis, apoptosis and focal infl ammation (88.6% of cases) and portal inflammation (90.9% of cases), Co nfluent necrosis was an uncommon finding (2.3% of cases). Assessment o f architectural features showed normal appearance in 35.2% of biopsies , The predominant architectural abnormality noted was portal tract fib rosis, Ten per cent of cases, however, showed significant fibrous band and/or nodule formation.