TTV infection in children with and without liver disease.
BACKGROUND
TTV DNA has been reported in patients with a broad spectrum of hepatic disorders as well as in healthy people.


OBJECTIVE
To clarify the role of TTV in children with liver disease and in healthy children.


METHODS
Degenerate primers designed to amplify a target sequence from the ORF 1 region of TTV genome were used for nested PCR, to detect TTV DNA in sera.


RESULTS
TTV was detected in 3 of 18 children with chronic hepatitis B (16.7%), 2 of 17 hepatitis B carriers (11.8%), 2 of 17 children with cryptogenic chronic liver disease (11.8%), and 1 of 40 (2.5%) children without liver disease. The infection rate was similar among the various study groups and in the various age groups. There was no difference between TTV positive and negative children in respect to gender, history of surgery, parenteral treatment, transfusion of blood and blood products, presence of hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, jaundice, and transaminase values.


CONCLUSIONS
TTV does not seem to have an etiologic role in cryptogenic liver disease in children and does not seem to influence the clinical course of liver disease.
Odemis
Ender
E
Department of Pediatrics, Hacettepe University School of Medicine, 06100 Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey.
Gurakan
Figen
F
Ergunay
Koray
K
Yuce
Aysel
A
Ozen
Hasan
H
Kocak
Nurten
N
D017677:Age Distribution; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004266:DNA Virus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D022783:Torque teno virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology
D004279:DNA, Viral