Evaluation of Antibodies to Hepatitis C Virus in a Long-Term Prospective Study of Posttransfusion Hepatitis Among Thalassemic Children

Me, Lai; Virgiliis, S. De; Argiolu, F; Farci, Patrizia; Mazzoleni, Ap; Lisci,; Rapicetta, Maria; Clemente, Maria Grazia; Nurchis, P; Arnone, M.; Balestrieri, A; Cao, Antonio

doi:10.1097/00005176-199305000-00020

Cited by 63 publications

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“…4 A prevalence of anti-HCV antibody among 76%-90% of these patients has been reported from Italy. 5,6 Studies conducted among β-thalassemia major patients from other countries have reported the prevalence of anti-HCV of 17% in Taiwan, 3 10 43.6% in India, 11 and 22.4% in Malaysia. 12 Anti-HCV antibody prevalence of 12.7% among P-thalassemia patients in the Al-Hasa region of Saudi Arabia is very low compared to the 40%-70% reported from other parts of the country.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus Antibody in Polytransfused β-Thalassemia Major Patients

Bahranı

Panhotra

2002

Ann Saudi Med

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus Antibody in Polytransfused β-Thalassemia Major Patients

Bahranı

Panhotra

2002

Ann Saudi Med

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“…In recent years, following the identification of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and the introduction of diagnostic tests which detected antibodies against HCV , this virus was recognized as the major cause of post-transfusion hepatitis (Alter, 1990;Miyamura et al, 1990). Very high prevalences of HCV markers, usually exceeding 60%, have been described by several authors (Resti et al, 1991;Cacopardo et al, 1992;Rebulla et al, 1992;Lai et al, 1993) in Italian thalassaemia patients.…”

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Prevalence and Clinical Significance of Hepatitis G Virus Infection in Adult Beta‐thalassaemia Major Patients

et al. 1997

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Summary. The risk of polytransfused patients for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is likely to extend to another recently identified member of the Flaviviridae, hepatitis G virus (HGV). We investigated the prevalence of HGV in 40 adult Italian patients with transfusion-dependent thalassaemia and evaluated the clinical significance of HGV infection. HGV-RNA was detected in 9/40 patients (22·5%). HGV infection was significantly associated with HCV viraemia (P ¼ 0·0012), with all patients positive for HGV being also viraemic for HCV. Overall, the clinical picture of patients with HCV/HGV co-infection was not different from that of patients with isolated HCV. However, patients co-infected with both viruses had lower values of alanine-transferase (P ¼ 0·035) and a lower titre of HCV viraemia (P ¼ 0·042) in the absence of other evident factors which could influence the clinical expression of HCV infection. In conclusion, HGV is highly prevalent among Italian polytransfused patients. No evidence of a clinically significant pathogenic role for HGV in liver disease could be found in these patients. In a subset of cases a possible interference of HGV with HCV infection was observed.

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“…Although only a very long-term prospective study on numerically valid, unselected cohorts of children infected during pregnancy or at delivery, can provide a proper estimate of the relative proportion of children who progress to end stage liver disease, studies thus far have clearly shown that children tend to have a much more benign HCV infection course than adults [5]. It is also clear that the development of severe liver disease can be accelerated by the co-occurrence of thalassemia [6], iron overload [6,7], chemotherapy [8][9][10][11], and HIV co-infection [12].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In the PEDS-C trial, published in abstract form, 114 children, with an average age of 10 years (range [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18], were randomized to PEG-IFN-alfa-2b (180 lg per 1.73 m squared once a week) plus RBV (15 mg/kg of body weight daily), or PEG-IFN-alfa-2a alone [20]. The children were treated for 48 weeks and followed for up to 76 weeks.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…It is probably not, given the low rate of progression to cirrhosis and the high cost of the drugs that makes them impossible to use in those very countries (e.g., Pakistan) where HCV infection is the highest. For the time being, it would therefore be advisable to limit the treatment to those children where risk factors for severe liver disease have been identified [6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

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confidence: 99%

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Treatment of chronic hepatitis C in children: Is it necessary and, if so, in whom?

Alisi

Comparcola

Nobili

2010

Journal of Hepatology

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Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection continues to be an important global health problem. It is estimated that approximately 170 million people worldwide are infected with HCV [1], and although children are only a small portion of those infected and the incidence of new infections has decreased in recent years, HCV still contributes to chronic liver disease in childhood [2].Currently, transmission occurs mainly during pregnancy or at delivery, and the transmission rate is low unless the mother is HIV-coinfected. Pre-natal screening, where done, allows identification of infected mothers and early detection of the infection in their children. Current guidelines recommend testing for HCV-RNA after 18 months of age (the results being unreliable earlier in life) [3,4].What is the natural history of hepatitis C in childhood? Several studies have tried to answer this question, but a low numbers of children in the majority of them, and the involvement in some studies of patients referred to tertiary care centres have made the results of many of these investigations questionable. Although only a very long-term prospective study on numerically valid, unselected cohorts of children infected during pregnancy or at delivery, can provide a proper estimate of the relative proportion of children who progress to end stage liver disease, studies thus far have clearly shown that children tend to have a much more benign HCV infection course than adults [5]. It is also clear that the development of severe liver disease can be accelerated by the co-occurrence of thalassemia [6], iron overload [6,7], chemotherapy [8][9][10][11], and HIV co-infection [12].In adults, HCV therapeutic strategies have evolved from monotherapy with interferon (IFN) alfa to combination therapy with IFN alfa and ribavirin (RBV); while in children, because of RBV-associated adverse effects (i.e. reversible hemolytic anemia, fetal abnormalities and fetal death in animal studies), therapeutic strategies were initially restricted to IFN monotherapy [4,13]. In recent years, favourable results with the combination of pegylated (PEG) interferon alfa-2b and RBV have been reported in children [14,15], and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved such combination therapy for use in previously untreated children with chronic hepatitis C aged 3 years or older. This approval has been based on the results of the study reported in this issue of the Journal of Hepatology [16]. In this multicentre (22 centres in 9 European or American countries), open-label study, Wirth et al. have evaluated the efficacy and safety of PEG-IFN-alfa-2b (60 lg/m 2 /week) plus RBV (15 mg/kg/day) in 107previously untreated children (3-17 years of age) with chronic hepatitis C and compensated liver disease [16]. Diagnosis of chronic hepatitis C was based on the presence of serum anti-HCV antibodies and HCV-RNA for more than 6 months before treatment, and histological signs of fibrosis or inflammatory activity. Children, with persistently elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) wit...

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Evaluation of Antibodies to Hepatitis C Virus in a Long-Term Prospective Study of Posttransfusion Hepatitis Among Thalassemic Children

Cited by 63 publications

References 0 publications

Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus Antibody in Polytransfused β-Thalassemia Major Patients

Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus Antibody in Polytransfused β-Thalassemia Major Patients

Prevalence and Clinical Significance of Hepatitis G Virus Infection in Adult Beta‐thalassaemia Major Patients

Treatment of chronic hepatitis C in children: Is it necessary and, if so, in whom?

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