[Clinical problems in non-A, non-B viral hepatitis. III. The course of non-A, non-B viral hepatitis in the chronic stages].

Investigation of a group of 231 patients with viral hepatitis non-A, non-B (HNANB) revealed that the majority of cases is of the parenteral type (60.17%) and the remainder was without parenteral procedures. The course of HNANB was icteric in the majority (72.55%). On check-up examination one year after the onset of the acute stage the pathological clinical and laboratory finding, i.e. chronic liver disease still persisted in 31.6%. A follow-up of the patients in the course of six years revealed that the ratio of serious sequelae (chronic active hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver) is significant and increases with time and thus already after two years these serious diagnoses predominate over the number of patients with chronic persistent hepatitis. The chi2 test revealed that there is no sexual difference as regards the development of the chronic stage of HNANB, that the chronic stage develops in both basic types of HNANB (in the parenteral and the epidemic type) but it is significantly more frequent in the parenteral type. The development of the chronic stage is equally frequent after icteric and anicteric forms. In patients who recovered completely within one year (68.39%) the convalescence was protracted and normalization of the clinical and biochemical finding occurred later than in patients with viral hepatitis A and B, hospitalized during the same period.