Etiological investigation of acute post-transfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis in China

✍ Scribed by Kang-Xian Luo; Zhi-Sen Liang; Shou-Chang Yang; Rong Zhou; Qing-Hua Meng; You-Wu Zhu; Hai-Tang He; Dr. Shibo Jiang

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 565 KB
• Volume: 39
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.1890390308

✦ Synopsis

The etiology of acute post-transfusion hepatitis (PTH) non-A, non-B (NANB) in China was investigated with the combination of advanced techniques, including a second generation of enzyme immunoassay for detection of the antibodies to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV), a reverse transcription and nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nPCR) for HCV RNA, and a PCR for hepatitis B virus DNA. Of the 57 patients who were diagnosed as acute PTH-NANB, 46 (80.7%) were positive for anti-HCV and 41 (71.9%) had HCV RNA. Combining together, 53 (93.0%) were seropositive for anti-HCV and/or HCV RNA. Surprisingly, 18 of those with HCV markers were also positive for HBV DNA, although they were negative for HBsAg, suggesting that a portion of the patients with acute PTH NANB were coinfected by both HCV and HBV. In addition, 4 (7%) of the patients with acute PTH-NANB had no detectable HCV and HBV markers with the use of the above-mentioned techniques. These results indicate that etiologic agent(s) other than HCV and HBV may also cause acute PTH-NANB or that the current techniques may still not be sensitive enough to detect trace levels of HCV and HBV markers.