Incidence of anti-HTLV-1 antibody in liver disease.
Positivity for serum anti-HTLV-1 antibody (anti-HTLV-1) in 171 patients with various chronic liver diseases and 22 asymptomatic hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers was compared with that of 200 healthy controls in the Chikugo district of Japan. The rate of anti-HTLV-1 positivity in patients with liver disease was 8.1% (14/171) and was higher than that (3.5%: 7/200) in healthy controls, but the difference was not significant. However, in patients with liver disease with a history of blood transfusion, the positive rate was 18.4% (7/38) which was significantly higher than that for healthy subject (P less than 0.001). On the other hand, in 133 liver disease patients without blood transfusion, anti-HTLV-1 positivity was significantly higher (P less than 0.05) in patients with hepatitis B surface antigen (11.3%: 6/53) than in those without it (1.3%: 1/80). These data suggest that the high incidence of anti-HTLV-1 in our patients with liver disease was due to the transmission of HTLV-1 by the same routes (maternal transmission and blood transfusion) and probably at the same time as the hepatitis viruses (HBV and hepatitis C virus).
Nakano
H
H
Second Department of Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan.
Sata
M
M
Hino
K
K
Aritaka
T
T
Maruyama
N
N
Hino
T
T
Abe
H
H
Tanikawa
K
K
Mizokami
M
M
D000328:Adult; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D005260:Female; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000382:microbiology*; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D015994:Incidence; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies
D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens