Significance of antibody to hepatitis C virus in Japanese patients with viral hepatitis: Relationship between anti‐HCV antibody and the prognosis of non‐A, non‐B post‐transfusion hepatitis

In a retrospective study, antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV antibody) was measured in 80 patients with acute viral hepatitis (type A, 18; type B, 21; type non-A, non-B, 41). Anti-HCV antibody was found in 12 of 20 patients (60%) with non-A, non-B post-transfusion hepatitis (NANB-PTH) and in 9 of 21 patients (43%) with sporadic NANB hepatitis (NANB-SPO). Patients with acute hepatitis type A or type B did not have anti-HCV antibody. The number of patients who developed chronic hepatitis was greater in the group with anti-HCV antibody than in the anti-HCV negative group in both NANB-PTH and NANB-SPO. The difference was significant in those with NANB-PTH (P < 0.05). To investigate the relationship between the long-term prognosis of NANB-PTH and the course of anti-HCV, we studied anti-HCV antibody in 12 patients who developed chronic type C hepatitis (C-CH) after PTH and followed them for more than 5 years after the development of PTH. One year after the development of PTH, all 12 had anti-HCV antibody. Five lost anti-HCV antibody (group 1) while 7 remained positive (group 2) at the final examination. Four of the 5 patients in group 1 had normal serum transaminases; however, abnormal transaminase persisted in all 7 patients in group 2 until the end of follow-up (P < 0.05). Because there was no significant difference in the mean follow-up period between groups 1 (91.6 months) and 2 (102.9 months), it is assumed that the long-term prognosis of group 1 is better than that of group 2. These observations indicate that anti-HCV antibody is a useful diagnostic marker for non-A, non-B hepatitis in patients with acute hepatitis and that the course of anti-HCV antibody is closely related to the evolution of serum transaminase abnormality in patients with acute and chronic viral hepatitis type C.