Autoimmune chronic active hepatitis: changing reactivity for antibodies to hepatitis C virus after immunosuppressive treatment.
Thirty-three patients fulfilling stringent criteria for autoimmune chronic active hepatitis (CAH) were tested for antibodies against hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) with an enzyme immunoassay. Eleven of the 33 (33%) patients were anti-HCV-reactive in a serum drawn before initiation of immunosuppressive therapy. Anti-HCV-reactive patients had significantly higher median s-IgG level (32.3 g/l) than nonreactive patients (23.5 g/l) (p less than 0.01). When in remission with normalized s-IgG levels as a result of the immunosuppressive therapy, only 1 of the 11 initially reactive patients was still reactive. Sera from patients with acute autoimmune CAH and high s-IgG levels may be nonspecifically reactive for anti-HCV.
Schvarcz
R
R
Dept. of Infectious Diseases, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
von Sydow
M
M
Weiland
O
O
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000276:immunology*; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D006521:Hepatitis, Chronic / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000378:metabolism; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies
D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies; D007074:Immunoglobulin G