title: Clinical characteristics and risk factors of sporadic Hepatitis E in central China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Epidemiological investigations, detections and vaccines of hepatitis E (HE) have been paid a focus of attention in prior studies, while studies on clinical features and risk factors with a large number of sporadic HE patients are scarce.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sporadic HE can occur throughout the year, with the highest incidence rate in the first quarter of a year, in central of China. Of the 210 patients, 85.2% were male, and the most common clinical symptoms were jaundice (85.7%), fatigue (70.5%) and anorexia (64.8%). Total bilirubin (TBil), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and international normalized ratio (INR) were found as major risk factors for death of HE patients. There was an overall mortality of 10%, and the mortality in the cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic group was 25% and 6.47%, respectively. Moreover, hepatitis E virus (HEV) infected patients with liver cirrhosis had a higher mortality and incidence of complications.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  TBil, BUN, and INR are major risk factors of mortality for HE. Liver cirrhosis can aggravate HE, and lead to a higher mortality. HEV infection can cause decompensation in patients with cirrhosis, as evidenced by a worsening Child-Pugh score.
authors: Department of Infectious Disease, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China. dytian@tjh.tjmu.edu.cn
authors: Shujun
authors: S
authors: Zhang
authors: Jingjing
authors: J
authors: Wang
authors: Quan
authors: Q
authors: Yuan
authors: Shengxiang
authors: S
authors: Ge
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Zhang
authors: Ningshao
authors: N
authors: Xia
authors: Deying
authors: D
authors: Tian
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000821:virology; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral