The natural course of chronic Hepatitis C: A comparison between patients with genotypes 1 and 2 Hepatitis C viruses.

Hepatology 1996 Apr;23(4):695-699

Kobayashi M, Tanaka E, Sodeyama T, Urushihara A, Matsumoto A, Kiyosawa K

The Second Department of Internal Medicine, Shinshu University School of Medicine, Matsumoto, Japan.

This study was conducted to clarify if the long-term histological outcome among patients with chronic Hepatitis C differs according to whether they are infected with genotype 1 or 2 Hepatitis C virus (HCV). We examined 140 patients with chronic Hepatitis C. The HCV genotype was determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on genotypes 1 and 2 specific recombinant proteins; genotype 1 was found in 100 patients (96 were 1b and 4 were indeterminate) and genotype 2 in 36. The two groups showed no significant difference for any clinical background features. Deterioration of the grade of liver histology during the follow-up period was seen in 68.0 percent of the patients with genotype 1 as compared with 41.7 percent of those with genotype 2 (P < .01). Similarly, the deterioration of the stage of liver histology was more common in the former group than in the latter (63.0 percent and 38.9 percent respectively; P < .05). The mean serum HCV-RNA titer was significantly higher in the patients with genotype 1 than in those with genotype 2 (P < .001), and multivariate analysis showed the titer was one of the independent factors of the deterioration of the stage (P = .0044). This phenomenon may be related in part to the difference in pathogenicity between the two HCV genotypes. In conclusion, our results suggest that more severe progression of chronic Hepatitis C is seen in patients showing genotype 1b compared with those with genotype 2.

PMID: 8666319, UI: 96230089