Sansonno D, Dammacco F
Department of Biomedical, University of Bari Medical School, Italy.
Digestion. 1992;51(2):115-20. doi: 10.1159/000200885.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the most important cause of transfusion-related non-A, non-B hepatitis. It is also thought to be the prime cause of non-transfusion-related or sporadic chronic liver disease. To assess the extent of HCV infection and its significance in this last form, we evaluated the clinical, serological and histological features of 84 consecutive HCV-related patients without a history of blood or blood products transfusion, alcohol or intravenous drug abuse or other known risk factors. Our results indicate that 68 patients (81%) had signs of chronicity, and 33 (39.2%) had superimposed cirrhosis. Serum abnormal alanine aminotransferase and gamma-glutamyltransferase activities represented good predictive markers of liver histological signs of chronicity. The levels of serum gammaglobulins were found to parallel histological severity of liver disease. One or more hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated markers were present in 52 patients (61.9%). Only 6 (7.1%) were chronic HBV carriers, and 3 of them had signs of active virus replication. These data indicate that HCV plays a major role in the etiology of sporadic chronic liver disease. Its presence is associated with histological forms of chronic liver disease in most patients, who likely represent chronic HCV carriers.
丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）是输血相关非甲非乙型肝炎的最重要病因。它也被认为是非输血相关或散发性慢性肝病的主要病因。为了评估HCV感染的程度及其在最后这种形式中的意义，我们评估了84例连续的无输血、使用血液制品、酗酒或静脉注射毒品史或其他已知危险因素的HCV相关患者的临床、血清学和组织学特征。我们的结果表明，68例患者（81%）有慢性肝病体征，33例（39.2%）有重叠性肝硬化。血清丙氨酸氨基转移酶和γ-谷氨酰转移酶活性异常是肝脏慢性组织学体征的良好预测指标。发现血清球蛋白水平与肝病的组织学严重程度平行。52例患者（61.9%）存在一种或多种乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）相关标志物。只有6例（7.1%）是慢性HBV携带者，其中3例有病毒活跃复制的体征。这些数据表明，HCV在散发性慢性肝病的病因中起主要作用。在大多数患者中，其存在与慢性肝病的组织学形式相关，这些患者可能是慢性HCV携带者。
