title: Mortality after acute hepatitis type A, B, and non-A non-B in 981 patients followed up for up to 10 years.
abstract: During 0-10 years of follow-up of 981 patients who had had biopsy-verified and serologically classified acute hepatitis, 50 died, which is 35 more than expected according to Danish mortality statistics. Four out of 284 with hepatitis type A died (expected, 1.8), and none of the deaths were due to liver disease or showed liver affection at autopsy. Out of 555 patients with hepatitis type B, 33 died (expected, 8.8); 1 died of subacute liver atrophy, and autopsy revealed cirrhosis in 2 who died of other causes. In the group of 142 with hepatitis type non-A non-B, 13 died (expected, 4.5); 5 had cirrhosis at autopsy, but death was caused by the liver disease only in 2 cases. The three liver deaths occurred among non-addicts (no. = 618), of whom 28 died (expected, 13.2). The drug addicts had a very high mortality, mainly owing to poisoning. This study suggests that during the first 10 years after acute hepatitis the mortality is slightly increased by the disease when of type B or non-A, non-B.
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000401:mortality*; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012042:Registries; D012306:Risk; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders