Chronic liver disease in kidney recipients with hepatitis C virus infection

: Background: The prevalence of anti‐hepatitis C virus (HCV) positive test is higher among patients in dialysis and in kidney recipients than in general population. Hepatitis C virus infection is the main cause of chronic liver disease in renal transplant patients. Liver biopsy and virological anal...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Clinical transplantation Vol. 17; no. 3; pp. 195 - 199
Main Authors:	Giordano, Helena M, França, Alex VC, Meirelles, Luciana, Escanhoela, Cecília AF, Nishimura, Nancy F, Santos, Raquel LS, Quadros, Kélcia RS, Mazzali, Marilda, Alves-Filho, Gentil, Soares, Elza C
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford, UK Munksgaard International Publishers 01-06-2003 Blackwell
Subjects:	Adult Alanine Transaminase - blood Biological and medical sciences Biopsy Case-Control Studies Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Female Hepatitis C Antibodies - analysis hepatitis C virus Hepatitis C, Chronic - etiology Hepatitis C, Chronic - pathology Human viral diseases Humans Immunosuppression Infectious diseases Kidney Transplantation Liver - pathology liver histology Male Medical sciences Polymerase Chain Reaction renal transplantation Time Factors Viral diseases Viral hepatitis Kidney disease Human renal transplantatior Urinary system disease Prognosis Hepatic disease Transplantation Kidney Infection Chronic Surgery Viral disease liver histology hepatitis C virus Digestive diseases Graft Comparative study Viral hepatitis C
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	: Background: The prevalence of anti‐hepatitis C virus (HCV) positive test is higher among patients in dialysis and in kidney recipients than in general population. Hepatitis C virus infection is the main cause of chronic liver disease in renal transplant patients. Liver biopsy and virological analysis were performed to clarify the grade of liver damage in kidney recipients. Methods: Renal recipients patients with at least 5 yr under immunosuppression were submitted to clinical and laboratory analysis. Patients who tested anti‐HCV positive were candidates to liver biopsy with no regard to transaminase levels. Results: Forty‐five patients tested anti‐HCV positive and 42 anti‐HCV negative. Twenty‐six anti‐HCV and RNA‐HCV positive patients were submitted to liver biopsy. Seventy‐three percentage of these patients presented chronic active hepatitis, from these only one patient presented cirrhosis. Only 29% of the anti‐HCV positive group presented elevated alanine aminotransferase levels. Anti‐HCV positive patients presented longer previous time on dialysis and less rejection episodes than the group anti‐HCV negative (p < 0.05). All anti‐HCV positive patients but one tested RNA‐HCV positive by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Conclusions: In this series the prevalence of anti‐HCV positive is 51.7%. Most of the patients presented liver damage in histology caused by HCV. However, we found only mild or minimal fibrosis and inflammatory activity grade, despite 10 yr of HCV infection and 5 yr of immunosuppressive treatment. Only one patient presented cirrhosis (4%). Performing serial liver biopsies in a long‐term follow‐up is needed to clarify the impact of HCV infection in renal transplant patients.
Bibliography:	ArticleID:CTR025 istex:8C759C095A628347660D7F99B63C0D856D700120 ark:/67375/WNG-SDZB2J2H-P ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0902-0063 1399-0012
DOI:	10.1034/j.1399-0012.2003.00025.x