Hepatic steatosis: A specific sign of hepatitis C reinfection after liver transplantation

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the major causes leading to orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) worldwide. Although viral infection persists in almost all patients, the pathology of recurrent HCV infection after OLT is not well characterized. To address this issue, we compared the pathological findings of 28 patients who underwent transplantation for HCV-related cirrhosis (group A, aged 47 ± 15 years; 23 men, 5 women) with those of 21 patients who underwent transplantation for nonviral indications (group B, aged 45 ± 21 years; 13 men, 8 women) during the first year after transplantation. Patients from group A were assessed for serum HCV RNA by 5′ untranslated region nested polymerase chain reaction before and 1 year after OLT. Patients underwent protocol liver biopsies 3 months and 1 year after transplantation. Group A patients more frequently had histological evidence of hepatic steatosis than group B patients, both at 3 months (P= .003) and 1 year (P = .003) after OLT. Fibrosis and portal inflammation were statistically more frequent in group A 1 year after transplantation. The sensitivity of steatosis in detecting histological disease recurrence was 100% at 3 months and 94% at 1 year; the specificity was 40% and 60%, respectively. Conversely, steatosis was 100% specific in detecting viral recurrence, with a sensitivity of 89%. The 1-year actuarial incidence of abnormal transaminase levels was 52% in group A and 13% in group B (P= .05). No biochemical or histological differences between patients infected with genotype 1b and patients with other HCV genotypes were found. Hepatic steatosis is a specific sign of viral recurrence after liver transplantation and a less specific sign of disease recurrence. HCV-infected liver transplant recipients often develop abnormal transaminase levels and liver fibrosis 1 year after OLT; these features are unrelated to HCV genotypes.