Published online Apr 21, 2006. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v12.i15.2432
Revised: December 2, 2005
Accepted: December 22, 2005
Published online: April 21, 2006
AIM: To describe the prevalence of transfusion-transmitted virus (TTV) infection in association with hepatitis A-E viral infections in different forms of liver diseases in North India.
METHODS: Sera from a total number of 137 patients, including 37 patients with acute viral hepatitis (AVH), 37 patients with chronic viral hepatitis (CVH), 31 patients with cirrhosis of liver and 32 patients with fulminant hepatic failure (FHF), were analyzed both for TTV-DNA and hepatitis A-E viral markers. Presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis E virus (HEV) infections was detected in different proportions in different groups. Moreover, TTV-DNA was simultaneously tested in 100 healthy blood donors also.
RESULTS: None of the patients had hepatitis A virus (HAV) and hepatitis D virus (HDV) infections. Overall prevalence of TTV-DNA was detected in 27.1% cases with AVH, 18.9% cases with CVH, 48.4% cases with cirrhosis and 9.4% cases with FHF. TTV-DNA simultaneously tested in 100 healthy blood donors showed 27% positivity. On establishing a relation between TTV infection with other hepatitis viral infections, TTV demonstrated co-infection with HBV, HCV and HEV in these disease groups. Correlation of TTV with ALT level in sera did not demonstrate high ALT level in TTV-infected patients, suggesting that TTV does not cause severe liver damage.
CONCLUSION: TTV infection is prevalent both in patients and healthy individuals in India. However, it does not have any significant correlation with other hepatitis viral infections, nor does it produce an evidence of severe liver damage in patients with liver diseases.