Analysis of acute to chronic hepatitis E: 6-10 year follow-up.

Hepatitis E as a self-limiting disease and is generally not chronic, although in a small number of cases it appears to be so. Complete data were collected from 1104 cases of hepatitis E out of which 28 did not heal after liver treatment. These 28 cases were followed-up for 6-10 years. It was found that hepatitis can be chronic. Chronic hepatitis cases are more common in males, but a high degree of inflammatory activity and fibrosis were not evident. After 6-10 years of follow-up observation, cirrhosis or liver cancer did not appear. This is significantly different from the hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses. Further, most cases of chronic hepatitis E occurred in older patients, in which the ability to remove the virus may decline, contributing to the more than six months duration, along with other important reasons. In addition, we also observed that several cases were unhealed or chronic because of a combination with other viruses. Chronic disease or the long-term use of immune agents may be one of the causes for chronic hepatitis E.