Hepatitis C virus antibodies in chronic liver diseases of different aetiology.

To define the prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection in patients with chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis of any aetiology, we tested a group of 372 consecutive subjects with biopsy-proven chronic liver disease (CLD) for anti-HCV antibodies, excluding active drug-addicts and alcoholics. Our results show that in Southern Italy HCV infection is widespread among subjects with cryptogenic chronic liver disease, as well as in liver diseases with features of autoimmunity (71.7% and 66.7% anti-HCV positive, respectively). Anti-HCV is infrequent among non drug-addicted HBsAg positive subjects (4.7%), and bears no relation to hepatitis D superinfection. Subjects with CLD and a history of parenteral exposure are almost always anti-HCV positive (89.2%). Patients with HBV-related CLD and previous drug-addicts are on the average younger than other disease groups, irrespective of their HCV status. Among subjects whose CLD is related to parenteral exposure, cryptogenic or autoimmune no increase in the rate of anti-HCV positivity seems to bear a parallel relationship to age. No known risk factor for parenteral transmission, other than use of blood or blood products and previous drug-addiction, can be clearly related to HCV infection. No trend to familiar clustering of HCV-induced liver disease is apparent. Liver disease severity, as assessed by transaminase levels and liver histology, does not correlate to anti-HCV status.