Korean J Gastroenterol.  1998 Nov;32(5):627-634.

Prevalence and Clinical Impact of Hepatitis G Virus Coinfection in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C

• Kim SS
• Park DK
• Park JJ
• Kim YK
• Kang DH
• Choi DJ
• Park HC
• Ha SY
• Hwang YJ
• Kim JH

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Hapatitis G virus (HGV) is a recently discovered flavivirus, and thus, little is known about its clinical significance. It is frequently observed that patients with chronic hepatitis C are coinfected with HGV. The aims of this study were to assess the prevalence of HGV infection and to evaluate the impact of coinfection on the severity of liver disease in patients with chronic hepatitis C.
METHODS
Sera from 76 patients with chronic hepatitis C were examined to identify HGV-RNA by RT-PCR using primers from 5'-noncoding region. Then, the patients were classified into the HGV-RNA positive and negative groups, and clinical, laboratory, and histologic features were compared between the two groups, retrospectively. The severity of liver disease was assessed by the peak of ALT level and the mean value of Knodell's score.
RESULTS
Ten of 76 patients (13.2%) were cainfected with HGV. The positivity of HGV-RNA was higher in intravenous drug users than in others, which was not statistically significant, There were no significant differences in age, sex, liver function test, and histologic score between HGV-RNA positive and negative patients.
CONCLUSIONS
HGV coinfection occurs frequently in patients with chronic hepatitis C, but does not seem to affect the severity of liver disease.

Keyword

Hepatitis C virus; GBV-C; Chronic hepatitis C

MeSH Terms

Coinfection*
Drug Users
Flavivirus
GB virus C*
Hepacivirus
Hepatitis C, Chronic*
Hepatitis*
Hepatitis, Chronic*
Humans
Liver Diseases
Liver Function Tests
Prevalence*
Retrospective Studies