title: Association between Hepatitis G and Unknown Chronic Hepatitis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hepatitis G virus (HGV) is a hepatotrope virus with unknown importance. The genome of the virus has been detected in patients with acute or chronic non-A-E hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The aim of this study was to determine the association between hepatitis G and unknown chronic hepatitis.
  
  
  METHODS
  This case-control study was performed in Ebne-Sina military hospital in Hamadan, Iran. The cases were 35 military staff with unknown chronic hepatitis. The control group consisted of 59 healthy subjects who had normal levels of serum alanine aminoteransferase (ALT). The data were analyzed by SPSS, version18, using Fisher's exact test, the Student's t-test, and multivariate logistic regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only one patient in the case group (2.9%) tested positive for HGV antibodies, and no one was infected in the control group. There was no association between HGV infection and unknown chronic hepatitis in our study (P=0.37). A significant association was found between the male gender and unknown chronic hepatitis (OR=14.9, P=0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  No association between HGV infection and unknown chronic hepatitis was found in our study, so it was not necessary to evaluate these patients for HGV infection.
authors.affiliation: Infectious disease specialist, Infectious Disease Research Center, AJA University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Saeed
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Soleiman-Meigooni
authors.affiliation: Infectious disease specialist, Infectious Disease Research Center, AJA University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Asgari
authors.affiliation: Infectious disease specialist, Infectious Disease Research Center, AJA University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyyed Javad
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hoseini-Shokouh
authors.affiliation: Infectious disease specialist, Infectious Disease Research Center, AJA University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Jalil
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rajabi
authors.affiliation: Ph.D. Candidate of Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Hassan
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Kazemi-Galougahi
authors.affiliation: M.D, General Physician, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moshtaghi
keywords: chronic hepatitis; hepatitis G