Prevalence of anti-HAV antibodies in multitransfused patients with beta-thalassemia.
OBJECTIVE
To detect the prevalence of anti-HAV IgG antibodies in adult multitransfused beta-thalassemic patients.


METHODS
We studied 182 adult beta-thalassemic patients and 209 controls matched for age and sex from the same geographic area, at the same time. Anti-HAV IgG antibodies, viral markers of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were evaluated.


RESULTS
Anti-HAV IgG antibodies were detected more frequently in thalassemic patients (133/182; 73.1%) than in healthy controls (38/209; 18.2%, P < 0.0005). When we retrospectively evaluated the prevalence of anti-HAV IgG antibodies in 176/182 (96.7%) thalassemic patients, whose medical history was available for the previous ten years, it was found that 83 (47.2%) of them were continuously anti-HAV IgG positive, 16 (9.1%) acquired anti-HAV IgG antibody during the previous ten years, 49 (27.8%) presented anti-HAV positivity intermittently and 28 (15.9%) were anti-HAV negative continuously.


CONCLUSIONS
Multitransfused adult beta-thalassemic patients present higher frequency of anti-HAV IgG antibodies than normal population of the same geographic area. This difference is difficult to explain, but it can be attributed to the higher vulnerability of thalassemics to HAV infection and to passive transfer of anti-HAV antibodies by blood transfusions.
Siagris
Dimitrios
D
Department of Internal Medicine, Patras University Hospital, 4 Tertseti Str, Patras 26442, Greece. dsiagris@altecnet.gr
Kouraklis-Symeonidis
Alexandra
A
Konstantinidou
Irini
I
Christofidou
Myrto
M
Starakis
Ioannis
I
Lekkou
Alexandra
A
Papadimitriou
Christos
C
Blikas
Alexandros
A
Zoumbos
Nicholas
N
Labropoulou-Karatza
Chryssoula
C
D000328:Adult; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D035922:Hepatitis A Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D030041:Hepatitis A virus / Q000276:immunology*; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D017086:beta-Thalassemia / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy
D035922:Hepatitis A Antibodies; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies; D007074:Immunoglobulin G