title: TTV infection in children with and without liver disease.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Hacettepe University School of Medicine, 06100 Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ender
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Odemis
authors.forename: Figen
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gurakan
authors.forename: Koray
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ergunay
authors.forename: Aysel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yuce
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ozen
authors.forename: Nurten
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kocak
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral