The clinical significance of circulating vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in patients with various liver diseases was investigated. Twenty-one patients with acute hepatitis (AH), 40 with chronic hepatitis (CH), 34 with cirrhosis (LC), 16 with fulminant hepatitis (FH), 10 with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), 12 with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), and 120 healthy individuals were included. Serum VEGF levels were measured by a chemiluminescence enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The mean values of serum VEGF levels in the patients with AH, CH, LC, FH, AIH, PBC, and control were 172.7, 58.0, 44.1, 37.3, 49.7, 74.9, and 65.0 pg/ml, respectively. The patients with AH had a level of serum VEGF significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.001). The serum VEGF levels in survivors of FH were significantly increased, but not in the nonsurvivors in the recovery phase compared with the levels on admission (P < 0.05). In the LC patients, serum VEGF levels were significantly lower than those of the control group (P < 0.05). These findings suggest that serum VEGF level may be associated with hepatocyte regeneration grade.

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Between March 1994 and March 1996 we studied transmission routes and clinical courses in eight patients with sporadic acute hepatitis C (two men, six women). Of the eight patients, three were treated for another illness 1-2 months before the onset of hepatitis, one was a parenteral drug abuser, one had an accidental needlestick injury and two had sexual contact with a partner with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Clinical courses included four women whose HCV RNA and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) became persistently negative without treatment, and four men and two women with the same results following interferon (IFN) treatment. It is thought that IFN therapy may prevent the progression to chronic liver disease. Results from this study might be useful in the future management of patients with sporadic acute hepatitis C.

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Based on these observations, we cannot draw a definitive conclusion that intraspousal transmission of GBV-C/HGV had occurred among these seven couples.