title: Does hepatitis C virus play a role in "non-viral" chronic liver disease?
abstract: It has recently been suggested that the hepatitis C virus may play a significant role in chronic liver diseases, such as autoimmune chronic active hepatitis, which are usually attributed to non-viral causes. We tested for antibodies to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) in sera from 140 patients with well characterised "non-viral" chronic liver diseases as well as sera from 51 patients thought to have chronic non-A, non-B (NANB) hepatitis (acting as positive controls) and 25 patients with non-hepatic autoimmune disorders. As expected, 45 of 51 patients (88%) diagnosed as having chronic NANB hepatitis were anti-HCV seropositive. Among 26 patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis, 8 were anti-HCV seropositive; in 5 patients (22%) there was no apparent risk factor for parenteral transmission. In the remaining 114 patients with chronic liver disease, 10 patients (9%) were seropositive for anti-HCV. However, 5 of these patients had a significant risk factor for parenteral transmission of hepatitis C virus, leaving only 5 of 106 (4.7%) with unexplained positive anti-HCV test results. Among patients with high titres of circulating autoantibodies but no liver disease, no positive results occurred. It is concluded that hepatitis C virus infection may account for some cases of cryptogenic cirrhosis. Although anti-HCV occurs more commonly in patients with other "non-viral" chronic liver diseases than has been reported in the community (0.5%-1.2%), the low prevalence of the antibodies indicates that hepatitis C virus infection is unlikely to be important in the aetiology or pathogenesis of autoimmune chronic active hepatitis and other poorly understood chronic liver diseases.
authors.affiliation: University of Sydney, NSW.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liddle
authors.forename: E B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Crewe
authors.forename: N R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Swanson
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Jeffrey
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.forename: W D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Batey
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Farrell
mesh_terms: D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000276:immunology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology; D006521:Hepatitis, Chronic / Q000276:immunology; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000276:immunology; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000276:immunology*; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies