title: Etiological spectrum of post-transfusion hepatitis.
abstract: Frequent occurrence of post-transfusion hepatitis continues despite screening for Australia antigen in blood before transfusion and elimination of commercial donor sources. The majority of these cases appears unrelated to hepatitis B virus. Preoperative, acute, and convalescent serra were screened for evidence of hepatitis B, hepatitis A, Epstein-Barr, and cytomegalovirus exposure in 34 cardiac surgery patients developing post-transfusion hepatitis postoperatively. Four patients showed evidence of hepatitis B infection and 3 patients developed significant antibody titer rises to cytomegalovirus. No patient showed evidence for acute hepatitis A infection postoperatively in response to blood transfusions. Epstein-Barr virus was also not responsible for any cases of post-transfusion hepatitis. Presently available laboratory methods failed to implicate hepatitis A, Epstein-Barr, or cytomegalo-virus in the majority of non-B post-transfusion hepatitis cases. This suggests that identification and characterization of additional hepatitis-producing agents will be required to define further the epidemiology of post-transfusion hepatitis and develop measures for its prevention.
mesh_terms: D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000276:immunology; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens; D006507:Hepatovirus; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D013997:Time Factors; D065227:Transfusion Reaction
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens