Histopathological characteristics of chronic hepatitis C virus infection in Turkey

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the major cause of posttransfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis. The aim of this study is to describe the morphological changes related to HCV infection found in Turkey and compare the similarities and differences with the previous reports. Liver biopsies from 44 patients with HCV infection were studied. Chronic active hepatitis was the most common (56.8%) histopathological lesion. Most of the cases (n = 15, 34.1%) with chronic active hepatitis showed mild activity and mean HAI was 5.5 in these cases. The presence of sinusoidal lymphocytes (79.5%) and Kupffer cell proliferation (68.2%) were the most common histological features. We could not find any publication about histopathological characteristics of HCV infection from Turkey in MEDLINE database. This study shows that histopathological changes seen in patients with chronic HCV infection in Turkey is comparable with the literature, but more histopathological studies including genotyping of HCV and objective criteria to evaluate histopathological changes of chronic HCV infection are needed for definite conclusion.