[Hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HBC) virus infections in Down's syndrome and in neuropsychiatric patients without Down's syndrome].
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) markers are found with high frequency in immunocompromised individuals. In order to find out if this is also true for the hepatitis C virus (HCV), we have analyzed a group (G.1) of 46 patients (pts.) with Down syndrome, situation known to be associated with immunodepression G. 1. We compared them with a G. of 310 mentally retarded pts. without Down syndrome G. 2 and without evidence of immunological disfunction. All of them were studied for infection with HBV. All pts. in G. 1 and G. 2 were also tested for HCV. The pts. have been hospitalized in a specialized medical institution for mentally retarded on a long term basis and were followed during 1 year. Finally G 3 was composed of 5454 voluntary blood donors.


METHODS
In all pts. search for HBV infection markers (anti-HBc, HBsAg, HBeAg by EIA test and HBV-DNA by nucleic acids hybridization) were performed. Search for HCV markers was done by a second generation EIA kit (Abbott Hepatitis C (rDNA) (Antigen).


RESULTS
HBsAg was found to be positive in 12/46 (26%) of G. I and 25/310 (8%) of G. II (p < 0.001). HBeAg was positive in 8/12 (67%) of G. I and in 2/25 (8%) of G. II (p < 0.001). All HBeAg positive pts. had elevated values of DNA-HBV. In G. I, 4/12 (33%) pts. lost HBeAg during the observation period, one of them remained HBV-DNA positive and none become HBsAg negative.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Findor
J A
JA
Hospital de Clínicas José de San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Sordá
J A
JA
Rey
J
J
Fernández
J
J
Kohan
A
A
Díaz Lestrem
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001118:Argentina / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens / Q000097:blood; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007326:Institutionalization; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence
D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens
La infección por el virus de la hepatitis B (VHB) y C (VHC) en el síndrome de Down y pacientes neuropsiquiátricos sin síndrome de Down.