The long-term course of non-A, non-B post-transfusion hepatitis

Patients with non-A, non-B post-transfusion hepatitis were followed from the onset of their disease until their blood tests normalized, until they died, or until the present time. Of 66 patients, 30 had a spontaneous resolution of their biochemical disease. Ten patients died or were begun on immunosuppressive therapy with transaminases still abnormal. The remaining 26 patients had abnormal transaminase levels when last seen. By actuarial analysis, only 54% of hepatitis patients are predicted to develop s spontaneous biochemical remission within 3 yr. No further resolutions have occurred after that time, Icteric and anicteric acute disease may be equally likely to progress to chronic disease. Initial and follow-up liver biopsy specimens have revealed both chronic persistent and chronic active hepatitis. Two patients showed histologic evidence of cirrhosis, and a third developed a hepatic coagulopathy and sphenomegaly. No other patient to date, however, has veveloped overt evidence of hepatocellular failure or portal hypertension. Thus, non-A, non-B post-transfusion hepatitis frequently results in biochemical evidence of chronic liver disease, and in a few patients cirrhosis may develop slowly and in a clinically inapparent fashion.