Long-term outcome of vertically acquired and post-transfusion hepatitis C infection in children

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM: To determine the natural history of perinatally acquired hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, clinical and laboratory outcomes among 31 children with HCV infection were retrospectively reviewed. Fifteen children had acquired HCV by blood transfusion (BT) prior to 6 months of age and 16 had vertically acquired (VT) HCV. METHODS: Demographic data, clinical symptoms and signs, liver biochemistry, HCV antibody, HCV-RNA and liver histology were evaluated. RESULTS: Mean age at last visit was 13.0 years (range 9.0-16.8 years) in the BT group and 8.6 years (range 0.5-18.1 years) in the VT group. There were no abnormal clinical findings of chronic liver disease in either group. Esti..