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Clinical, virological and histological implications of GB virus‐C/hepatitis G virus infection in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection: a multicentre study based on 671 patients
Author(s) -
S Ben Slimane,
Janice K. Albrecht,
June Fang,
Zachary Goodman,
Masashi Mizokami,
Keping Qian,
Johnson Y.N. Lau
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of viral hepatitis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.329
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1365-2893
pISSN - 1352-0504
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2893.2000.00188.x
Subject(s) - gb virus c , medicine , hepatitis c virus , virus , virology , alanine transaminase , flaviviridae , chronic infection , liver disease , immunology , immune system
To determine the prevalence, as well as the clinical, virological and histological implications of GB virus C/hepatitis G virus (GBC‐C/HGV) infection in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, sera from 671 well‐characterized patients with chronic HCV infection were tested for GBV‐C/HGV RNA using a sensitive and specific reverse transcription ‘nested’ polymerase chain reaction (RT–nPCR). GBV‐C/HGV RNA was detected in 65 of 671 (9.7%) patients with chronic HCV infection. Importantly, GBV‐C/HGV co‐infection was not associated with any changes in indices of liver diseases, including serum alanine transaminase levels, Knodell score or histology activity index (HAI). In this cohort, GBV‐C/HGV co‐infection was weakly associated with a shorter mean estimated duration of HCV infection and a higher median HCV viraemia level. We conclude that GBV‐C/HGV has minimal or no impact on liver disease activity in patients with chronic HCV infection. This data supports the notion that GBV‐C/HGV may not be a hepatitis virus.