HGV IN CHILDREN WITH CHRONIC HEPATITIS

E. Majda-Stanislawska, M. Bednarek

Department of Infectious Diseases, Medical University of Lodz, Poland

Objective: to assess the incidence and clinical importance of hepatitis G virus (HGV) in children with chronic hepatitis (CH). 284 children (22 healthy and 262 with CH ) were investigated for anti-GBV-C by ELISA (R α D Systems) Twenty-eight children (10 girls, 18 boys), aged 2–18 (mean 8 years) were investigated for serum HGV-RNA by RT-PCR.

Results: 24 of 262 children with CH (9%) and none of the healthy ones were anti-GBV-C positive. Ten out of 28 investigated children with CH were HGV- RNA positive: 2/8 with type B, 5/18 with type C, 2/3 children with autoimmune hepatitis and 1/4 with CH of unknown cause. There was no statistically significant difference in median ALT, AST, median serum albumin and γglobulin concentrations between the groups of HGV-RNA positive and HGV-RNA negative children. Liver biopsy was performed in 23 children: 1 out of 9 HGV-RNA negative and 6 out of 14 HGV-RNA negative children showed histological symptoms of liver cirrhosis (p=0,01). Eight children gave history of blood product transfusion (5 in the first month of life): 7 were HGV-RNA positive and 1 HGV-RNA negative (p=0,001). Conclusions: 1) HGV is common in Polish children with chronic hepatitis. 2)The most probable source of infection is blood product transfusion. 3) The virus when introduced early in life is most probably present for years. 4) In our study HGV was found more often in children with liver cirrhosis.