Stability of HCV-RNA level and its lack of correlation with disease severity in asymptomatic chronic hepatitis C virus carriers.

This study examines the relationship between HCV-RNA levels and disease severity in 60 individuals with chronic hepatitis C virus infection. HCV-RNA levels were quantified by the branched DNA (bDNA) assay in 445 samples (median: eight samples per patient) obtained over a median of 40.4 months (95% confidence interval (CI): 37.

Differential CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cell responsiveness in hepatitis C virus infection.

This study was performed to compare the vigor and phenotype of virus-specific CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cell responses in patients with different virologic and clinical outcomes after hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The results show that a vigorous and multispecific CD4(+) proliferative T-cell response is maintained indefinitely after recovery from HCV infection whereas it is weak and focused in persistently infected patients. In contrast, the HCV-specific CD8(+) T-cell response was quantitatively low in both groups despite the use of sensitive direct ex vivo intracellular interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) staining.

The outcome of acute hepatitis C predicted by the evolution of the viral quasispecies.

The mechanisms by which hepatitis C virus (HCV) induces chronic infection in the vast majority of infected individuals are unknown. Sequences within the HCV E1 and E2 envelope genes were analyzed during the acute phase of hepatitis C in 12 patients with different clinical outcomes. Acute resolving hepatitis was associated with relative evolutionary stasis of the heterogeneous viral population (quasispecies), whereas progressing hepatitis correlated with genetic evolution of HCV.

Analysis of hepatitis G virus (HGV) RNA, antibody to HGV envelope protein, and risk factors for blood donors coinfected with HGV and hepatitis C virus.

Serologic, biochemical, and molecular analyses were used to study hepatitis G virus (HGV), antibody to the HGV envelope protein (anti-E2), risk factors, clinical significance, and the impact of HGV on coexistent hepatitis C virus (HCV). Among 329 donors with confirmed HCV infection, 12% were HGV RNA-positive and 44% were anti-E2-positive (total exposure, 56%). HGV RNA and anti-E2 were mutually exclusive except in 9 donors (1.

Hepatitis C in asymptomatic blood donors.

Among 248 asymptomatic blood donors positive for antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) enrolled in a long-term prospective study, 86% had chronic HCV infection and 14% appeared to have recovered as assessed by serial determinations of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and HCV RNA by polymerase chain reaction. Established parenteral risk factors for HCV transmission were identified in 75% of donors. In addition, there was a strong independent association between HCV positivity and cocaine snorting, suggesting that shared snorting devices may be a covert route of parenteral transmission.

Rapid and sensitive detection of cell-associated HIV-1 in latently infected cell lines and in patient cells using sodium-n-butyrate induction and RT-PCR.

To develop a rapid and sensitive means of detecting cell-associated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), donor cells from HIV seropositive patients were treated with the potent viral activator sodium-n-butyrate (NaB) and subsequently assayed by both in situ RNA hybridization and a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The sensitivity of RT-PCR was estimated to be equivalent to 1 x 10(-16) grams (0.1 fg) or approximately 64 copies of the input standard viral RNA per reaction.

The incidence of transfusion-associated hepatitis G virus infection and its relation to liver disease.

Background: The role of hepatitis G virus (HGV) in transfusion-associated infection and its relation to liver disease are not well understood.

Methods: Serum samples collected between 1972 and 1995 from 357 transfusion recipients, 157 controls who did not receive transfusions, 500 randomly selected volunteer blood donors, and 230 donors of blood received by HGV-infected patients were tested for HGV RNA by qualitative and quantitative polymerase-chain-reaction assays. Samples obtained before transfusion and serially after transfusion from 79 of the 81 transfusion recipients who had transfusion-associated non-A, non-B hepatitis were available for testing.

Routes of infection, viremia, and liver disease in blood donors found to have hepatitis C virus infection.

Background: For many people infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), the route of exposure, risk of transmission, and severity of associated liver disease are unknown. We studied these variables in people who donated blood voluntarily.

Methods: Blood donors who tested positive for HCV antibodies on enzyme immunoassay were classified according to whether the results of a confirmatory second-generation recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) for HCV were positive, negative, or indeterminate.

Long-term clinical and histopathological follow-up of chronic posttransfusion hepatitis.

We have evaluated the clinical and histopathological outcomes of patients who contracted chronic non A, non B hepatitis as a result of transfusions administered during heart surgery at the National Institutes of Health. Posttransfusion hepatitis developed in 65 of 1,070 (6.1%) patients and became chronic in 45 (69%) of those cases.

Detection of antibody to hepatitis C virus in prospectively followed transfusion recipients with acute and chronic non-A, non-B hepatitis.

We measured antibody (anti-HCV) to hepatitis C virus, which causes non-A, non-B hepatitis, by radioimmunoassay in prospectively followed transfusion recipients and their donors. Of 15 patients with chronic non-A, non-B hepatitis documented by liver biopsy, all seroconverted for the antibody; of 5 with acute resolving non-A, non-B hepatitis, 3 (60 percent) seroconverted. The development of anti-HCV was delayed (mean delay, 21.

Clinical implications of positive tests for antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in asymptomatic blood donors.

Of 693,000 volunteer blood donors in Washington, D.C., who were screened for infection with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) from July 1985 through December 1988, 284 tested positive on both enzyme immunoassay and Western blot assay.

Antibody to hepatitis B core antigen as a paradoxical marker for non-A, non-B hepatitis agents in donated blood.

The relationship between the presence of antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) in donor blood and the development of hepatitis in recipients of that blood was studied in 6293 blood donors and 481 recipients who were followed for 6 to 9 months after transfusion. Of 193 recipients of at least 1 unit of blood positive for anti-HBc, 23 (11.9%) developed non-A, non-B hepatitis compared with 12 (4.