[A study on viremia in patients with hepatitis E].

Hepatitis E virus RNA (HEV RNA) was detected in 531 serial serum specimens collected from 62 hospitalized patients with hepatitis E by reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nPCR) setting two pairs of primer from open reading frame 1 (ORF1) to understand the process of HEV infection more thoroughly. Results showed that 71 percent of the patients were positive for HEV RNA. Thirty-two of them with 288 serial serum specimens were followed up for the whole process, and 24 cases (75%) were positive for HEV RNA, positive rates declined with the course of the disease and serum HEV RNA lasted for 20.6 days in average. Serum HEV RNA was kept positive in 36 of the 44 patients (81.8%) at the time their serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and serum total bilirubin began to lower, and anti-HEV was detected in 39 of them (88.6%). Proportion of HEV viremia and length of it had no direct relationship with serum ALT and levels of total serum bilirubin and anti-HEV.