In:
Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Wiley, Vol. 16, No. 2 ( 2001-02), p. 209-214
Abstract:
Background and Aims: The clinical outcomes of adult‐acquired acute infection of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) are quite different. In order to compare the clinical, biochemical, virologic and pathologic pictures in these two groups of patients, we enrolled 22 adult patients with acute hepatitis C and 16 adult patients with acute hepatitis B, on whom liver biopsies were performed within 3 months of acute onset of the illness. Results: The results showed that a significantly younger age, a higher ratio of the clinical symptoms of jaundice, nausea, vomiting, and poor appetite, a higher mean serum level of alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, and total bilirubin were present in patients with acute hepatitis B patients than in those with acute hepatitis C ( P 〈 0.05). There was a significantly higher degree of periportal inflammation and total necro‐inflammatory activity in the acute hepatitis B patients ( P = 0.002 and 0.049, respectively). Fifteen (68.2%) of the 22 patients with acute hepatitis C had detectable serum HCV‐RNA, but only two (14.3%) of the 14 tested patients with acute hepatitis B had detectable serum HBV‐DNA, detected by using the branched DNA signal amplification assay. Eighteen (82%) of the 22 acute hepatitis C patients and none of the 16 acute hepatitis B patients progressed into a chronic hepatitis stage ( P 〈 0.001). Conclusion: The manifestations of mild clinical symptoms, lower mean serum transaminases and bilirubin levels, a lesser degree of histological periportal necroinflammation, and more patients with a high circulatory viral load among the acute hepatitis C patients, may lead to more of that group developing chronicity than patients with acute hepatitis B.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0815-9319
,
1440-1746
DOI:
10.1046/j.1440-1746.2001.02422.x
Language:
English
Publisher:
Wiley
Publication Date:
2001
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2006782-3
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