[Clinical characteristics of HCV infection in pregnancy: the role of sexual transmission].

Background: There is no uniformity of opinions about the possibility of sexual transmission of hepatitis-C-virus infection. Moreover the infection during pregnancy is often underestimated.

Methods: One hundred and seventy-eight anti-HCV-positive pregnant women were investigated to evaluate the incidence of HCV infection and the possibility of sexual transmission of the disease to the partners.

Results: 126 patients out of 178 (70.8%) were positive for viral infection at PCR. In 96 patients (53.9%) HCV-positivity was detected for the first time in the actual pregnancy. 147 male partners out of 178 were checked for HCV-positivity and in 31 of them (21.1%) HCV antibodies were found.

Conclusions: The results underline the importance of a screening for HCV-positivity in every pregnant, searching for anti-HCV antibodies also in patients not reporting risk factors. ALT values seem to be of little importance in the monitoring of the pathology. Sexual transmission of HCV virus from woman to man seems to occur rarely.