Tanaka E, Alter H J, Nakatsuji Y, Shih J W, Kim J P, Matsumoto A, Kobayashi M, Kiyosawa K
Shinshu University School of Medicine, Nagana-ken, Japan.
Ann Intern Med. 1996 Nov 1;125(9):740-3. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-125-9-199611010-00007.
To clarify the effect of hepatitis G virus (HGV) infection on chronic hepatitis C.
Retrospective study.
University hospital in Matsumoto, Japan.
189 randomly selected patients with histologically proven chronic hepatitis C, including 101 patients receiving interferon-alpha.
Serum levels of HGV RNA were measured by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Clinical features, including liver histologic findings, hepatitis C virus (HCV) markers, and response of HCV to interferon-alpha were compared between HGV RNA-positive and HGV RNA-negative patients.
21 of 189 (11%) patients with chronic hepatitis C were positive for HGV RNA. On average, patients with HGV RNA were younger than those without HGV RNA (mean age +/- SD, 46.6 +/- 13.0 years and 51.7 +/- 10.7 years, respectively); other demographic and clinical features were similar. The HCV genotype and HCV RNA level were distributed similarly between patients with and those without HGV infection. Ten of 101 patients with chronic hepatitis C who received interferon-alpha were positive for HGV RNA. The rate of sustained HCV response to interferon-alpha in patients with HGV infection (30%) was similar to that in patients without HGV infection (36%). The HGV RNA level decreased during therapy in all 9 patients in whom this value was measured. However, only 2 of these patients had a sustained HGV response after discontinuation of therapy.
Patients who only had HCV infection did not differ from patients with HCV and HGV co-infection in clinical presentation, HCV RNA level, or response of HCV to interferon-alpha therapy. Thus, HGV infection had no apparent influence on the clinical or virologic course of HCV infection. Hepatitis G virus was uniformly sensitive to interferon-alpha therapy, but only a few patients had a sustained virologic response.
阐明庚型肝炎病毒（HGV）感染对慢性丙型肝炎的影响。
回顾性研究。
日本松本的大学医院。
189例经组织学证实为慢性丙型肝炎的随机选择患者，其中101例接受α干扰素治疗。
采用逆转录聚合酶链反应检测血清HGV RNA水平。比较HGV RNA阳性和HGV RNA阴性患者的临床特征，包括肝脏组织学检查结果、丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）标志物以及HCV对α干扰素的反应。
189例慢性丙型肝炎患者中有21例（11%）HGV RNA阳性。平均而言，HGV RNA阳性患者比无HGV RNA患者年轻（平均年龄±标准差分别为46.6±13.0岁和51.7±10.7岁）；其他人口统计学和临床特征相似。HGV感染患者和未感染患者的HCV基因型和HCV RNA水平分布相似。101例接受α干扰素治疗的慢性丙型肝炎患者中有10例HGV RNA阳性。HGV感染患者对α干扰素的持续HCV反应率（30%）与未感染HGV患者（36%）相似。在测量该值的所有9例患者中，治疗期间HGV RNA水平均下降。然而，这些患者中只有2例在停药后有持续的HGV反应。
仅感染HCV的患者与HCV和HGV合并感染的患者在临床表现、HCV RNA水平或HCV对干扰素-α治疗的反应方面无差异。因此，HGV感染对HCV感染的临床或病毒学病程无明显影响。庚型肝炎病毒对α干扰素治疗普遍敏感，但只有少数患者有持续的病毒学反应。
