[Hepatitis B and C virus in chronic alcoholic patients: prevalence and influence on liver injury]

The aim of this prospectively designed study is to analyse the prevalence of HBV and HCV infections in 115 chronic alcohol abusers, their relation to epidemiological variables, and their meaning in pathogenesis and severity of alcoholic liver injury. A prevalence of 13.9% anti-HBc and 20.0% anti-HCV reactivity (EIA II) were found, significantly higher that found in blood donors (3.75 and 0.65% respectively). It is striking our finding of 69.6% "sporadic" type of HCV infection. Histological diagnostic of chronic hepatitis was done in 3 cases, all of them reactive to anti-HCV, enhancing the ethiologic role of HCV in the so called "alcoholic chronic hepatitis". No differences in histological final diagnosis were found related to HBV and HCV markers reactivity, suggesting no clear influence of viral infections on the severity of liver damage in alcoholics in our series. Neither anti-HCV positivity ratio seemed have to influence on these results. Despite a high prevalence of HBV and HCV infection in chronic alcohol abusers, our finding suggest no clear role for them in histological damage.