Figure 1.
Acute hepatitis C (AHC) was defined as elevation of alanine transaminase (ALT) >100 IU/L accompanied by seroconversion of anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody. Three patients could not be followed up for 1 year after diagnosis and were excluded from further analysis. HCV cleared spontaneously in 4 cases. PEG-IFN plus RBV treatment was initiated within 1 year of diagnosis of AHC in 12 out of 28 patients who did not show spontaneous clearance. One patient with missing treatment data following transfer to another clinic about two weeks after initiation of IFN plus RBV, was excluded from analysis related to the effect of PEG-IFN plus RBV. PEG-IFN: pegylated interferon, RBV: ribavirin.
Table 1.
Characteristics of AHC patients (n = 32).
Table 2.
Clinical presentation of AHC patients (n = 32).
Table 3.
Comparison of patients of the SVR and non-SVR groups.
Figure 2.
Histological findings in needle liver biopsy specimen from the patient who showed null-response (Table 3).
The pre-treatment biopsy specimen obtained at 13 weeks after AHC diagnosis showed stage 2 fibrosis (F2) according to the classification of chronic hepatitis C (New Inuyama Classification). (A and B) Formation of bridging fibrosis by fibrous and cellular expansion in the portal tract. (C) Magnified view showing centrilobular piece-meal necrosis (green arrow), acid folic body (yellow arrow) and spotty necrosis (red arrow). (A) Hematoxylin-eosin stain, x100, (B) Silver impregnation stain, x100, (C) Hematoxylin-eosin stain, x400. PEG-IFN: pegylated interferon, RBV: ribavirin, AHC: acute C hepatitis.