Transfusion-transmitted virus prevalence in Turkish patients with thalassemia

In hematology patients on chronic transfusion regimes, liver diseases are frequent, and mostly related to the agents transmitted by blood products and concominant iron deposition in liver. Besides hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) viruses, new viral agents like hepatitis G virus (HGV) and TorqueTeno virus (TTV) are identified in these patients, although their association with any pathology or disease is not yet proved. In the present work, the authors studied the clinical importance of TTV in Turkish multitransfused patients with thalassemia. Forty-six healthy and 57 thalassemic patients were enrolled in the study. TTV was detected in serum samples by 3'-UTR nested PCR. Transaminase and ferritin levels, hepatitis B and C virus markers and number of transfusions were interpreted for possible association with TTV infection. As a result, TTV was detected in 63% of the thalassemia and 54% of the control patients. Prevalence of TTV infection, clinical features, laboratory data, and annual transfusion numbers of TTV-positive and -negative patients were not observed to be statistically significant. In conclusion, in Turkish patients with thalassemia, TTV infection cannot be considered as a risk factor for liver disease.