Etiological, clinical and laboratory data of post-transfusion hepatitis: a retrospective study of 379 cases from 53 Italian hospitals.

Abstract

Among the 8,604 cases of acute viral hepatitis hospitalized during 1982 in 53 Italian hospitals, we studied 379 cases of post-transfusion hepatitis, 262 cases which occurred after surgery and 4,576 cases with no history of parenteral exposure. The etiological agents of post-transfusion hepatitis were NANB viruses in 57.8%, HBV in 39.0% and HAV in 3.2% of the cases. CMV and EBV accounted for less than 1.5% of the post-transfusion hepatitis cases. HBV was the main etiological agent (62.2% of the cases) in the post-surgical hepatitis group, where HAV accounted for only 6.1% of the cases. In contrast, in the group with no history of parenteral exposure, hepatitis A was most frequent. Percentages of patients with history of transfusion or surgery were always higher in type B and NANB hepatitis than in type A, suggesting that surgery without transfusion also represents a risk of acquiring type B and NANB hepatitis. No regional differences were observed in the etiological patterns of post-transfusion hepatitis and post-surgical hepatitis. The acute phase of type B post-transfusion hepatitis was more severe than that of NANB post-transfusion hepatitis, as shown by higher serum bilirubin and ALT levels and by a higher case fatality rate.