HCV antibodies, and chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Sera from patients of common types (type NANB, type B and in alcoholic) of chronic liver disease (CLD) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were tested for HCV antibodies (anti-C100-3) by means of enzyme immunoassay. Among type NANB cases, anti-HCV was almost equally detected with a high frequency in both the patients with history of blood transfusion (75%, 135/181) and those without (72%, 90/125). On the other hand, there was a large difference in the frequences between patients of type B liver diseases with previous transfusion (42%, 5/12) and those without (4%, 3/76), and also, among cases of CLD in alcoholic, anti-HCV prevalence was higher in the patients with previous transfusion (64%, 7/11) than that in those without (20%, 10/51). Among cases of HCC in alcoholic, however, the prevalence was high even in the patients without previous transfusion (59%, 20/34), having no significant difference from that of non-alcoholic, type NANB HCC patients (67%, 28/42). Above results suggest that the anti-HCV assay system is specific for detecting the infection with the virus (HCV) causing the majority of blood-born NANB hepatitis, and also suggest that most of HCCs in alcoholics develop from anti-HCV-positive CLD. In another observation performed in patients of alcoholism, anti-HCV was detected at 8% (4/48), the result implicating that alcoholics are in high risk for HCV infection. © 1991, The Japan Society of Hepatology. All rights reserved.