Document 0535
 DOCN  M9610535
 TI    HCV infection in patients with primary defects of immunoglobulin
       production.
 DT    9601
 AU    Quinti I; Pandolfi F; Paganelli R; el Salman D; Giovannetti A; Rosso R;
       Oliva A; Rainaldi L; Aiuti F; Department of Allergy and Clinical
       Immunology, University La; Sapienza Rome, Italy.
 SO    Clin Exp Immunol. 1995 Oct;102(1):11-6. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE
       MED/96003944
 AB    We tested for infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) in 58 patients
       affected by humoral immunodeficiencies: 43 common variable
       immunodeficiency (CVI), two hyper IgM syndrome (HIM), two IgG subclass
       deficiency, four ataxia-telangiectasia (AT), and seven X-linked
       agammaglobulinaemia (XLA). While the assessment of serum specific HCV
       antibodies in some of these patients was not informative because of the
       impairment in specific antibody production, the reverse transcriptase
       polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay used to detect serum HCV RNA
       was a useful method for diagnosing infection. We found that 38% of late
       onset hypogammaglobulinaemic patients (CVI, HIM or IgG subclass
       deficiency) had evidence of HCV infection. HCV infection was not
       detectable in patients with XLA or AT. The majority of our patients had
       persistent viraemia, and those who underwent liver biopsy showed
       histological findings of chronic hepatitis. Moreover, we could
       demonstrate in vitro that eight of 18 HCV-infected patients were
       actively producing anti-HCV antibodies, despite their impaired antibody
       production. The high rate of HCV infection in hypogammaglobulinaemic
       patients could be related to several nosocomial routes of transmission,
       including intravenous immune globulin administration. Despite the
       persistent viremia only two patients had cirrhosis and none had
       hepatocarcinoma.
 DE    Adolescence  Adult  Agammaglobulinemia/*COMPLICATIONS  Child  Female
       Hepatitis C/*ETIOLOGY/IMMUNOLOGY  Hepatitis C Antibodies/BLOOD  Human
       Immunoglobulins/BIOSYNTHESIS  Immunoglobulins, Intravenous/ADVERSE
       EFFECTS  Lymphocyte Transformation  Male  Middle Age  RNA, Viral/BLOOD
       Support, Non-U.S. Gov't  JOURNAL ARTICLE

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