We enrolled 44 patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) acute infection, 21 anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive for at least 1 year (case BC group), 20 anti-HCV-negative (control B group), and 3 with HBV/HCV acute concurrent infection. For each case BC, a subject with chronic HCV infection alone was selected (control C group). At the first observation, 85.7% of patients in case BC group and 85% of those in control B group were HBV-DNA-positive (polymerase chain reaction [PCR]), with a similar trend towards a decrease and negativization in about 20 days; in the case BC group, seroconversion to antibody to hepatitis B e antigen (anti-HBe) was more rapid. HCV-RNA (PCR) was undetectable in all case BC patients but 1, who shortly became negative, whereas 85.7% of subjects in control C group were positive (P < .001). Severe acute hepatitis was more frequent in the case BC group than in the control B group (28.6% vs. 0%, P < .05). Of the 14 patients in the case BC group and of the 16 in the control B group followed up for more than 6 months, 1 in the first and 1 in the second group became hepatitis B surface angiten ( P atients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV)/hepatitis C virus (HCV) concurrent infection show a reciprocal inhibition of viral genomes, an association with a severe clinical presentation, and an infrequent response to interferon alfa treatment. 1-10 Instead, very little is known about HBV/HCV acute concurrent infection because only a few case reports are available in the literature. 11,12 Also, little is known about HBV acute infection when it develops in chronic HCV carriers, but the few case reports published on the topic suggest an association with a severe clinical presentation. [13][14][15] Acute HBV infection in chronic HCV carriers may be rather frequent in Italy and in other western countries where drug addicts are numerous, frequently anti-HCVpositive, [16][17][18][19] and infrequently vaccinated against HBV.This article reports the data from our study on the clinical presentation, course of the disease, and HBV/ HCV interaction in 21 HCV chronic carriers who developed HBV acute hepatitis (cases), compared with 20 patients with HBV-related acute hepatitis with no HCV infection (controls) observed in the same period. We also report the data on 3 cases of HBV/HCV acute concurrent infection identified in the same investigation.
Patients and MethodsWe enrolled all 44 consecutive patients with HBVrelated acute hepatitis hospitalized in our ward from