Hepatitis C biochemical remission and viral replication in haemodialysis patients

✍ Scribed by Yuki, Nobukazu; Hayashi, Norio; Matsushita, Yoshiki; Tabata, Tsutomu; Inoue, Takashi; Fusamoto, Hideyuki; Kamada, Takenobu

• Book ID: 102646506
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 535 KB
• Volume: 48
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199603)48:3<242::aid-jmv5>3.0.co;2-8

✦ Synopsis

The natural course of non-A, non-B (type C) hepatitis was studied in 62 haemodialysis patients.

From the onset ofthe disease, serum alanine aminotransferase levels were monitored monthly for 9-218 mon (median 115).Afterfluctuation of aminotransferase levels for 1-206 mon (median 391, 57 (92%) patients showed normalization of these levels lasting until the end ofthe follow-up, which was for >2 yr in 31 (50%) cases and for >5 yr in 15 (24%) cases. At the end of follow-up, hepatitis C viraemia was assessed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and branched DNA (bDNA) assay. Viraemic levels were significantly lower in the 15 patients with normal aminotransferase for >5 yr (median RT-PCR+ve/bDNA-ve, range RT-PCR-ve t o lo".' Eq/mL) than in the 47 cases with normal levelsfor <5 yr (median 106,6, range RT-PCR+ve/bDNA-ve to Eq/mL) ( P < 0.01). Moreover, a significant inverse relation was observed between viraemic levels and the duration of aminotransferase normalization (r = -0.46, P < 0.01 1. These findings indicate that biochemical remission of hepatitis C may be frequent in haemodialysis patients and may be related to viral attenuation.