Chronic non‐A, non‐B hepatitis developed after transfusions, illicit self‐injections or sporadically. Outcome during long‐term follow‐up – a comparison

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Abstract
Ninety-two patients with biopsy-proven chronic non-A, non-B hepatitis after blood transfusions, illicit self-injections or sporadically were followed clinically for an average of nearly 5 years. In the posttransfusion hepatitis group, which comprised 37 patients with a mean age of 54 years (range 18-83 years), 59% developed chronic active hepatitis (CAH) and 46% also showed signs of early cirrhosis (eCi) or manifest cirrhosis (cI). In the illicit self-injection group, comprising 33 patients with a mean age of 26 years (range 17-63 years), 39% manifested CAH and 18% eCI or CI. In the sporadic group, which consisted of 22 patients with a mean age of 32 years (range 16-62 years), 41% showed CAH and 23% eCi. Thus, in all, 44/92 (48%) of the patients with chronic non-A, non-B hepatitis developed CAH and 28/92 (30%) signs of early or manifest cirrhosis. Patients .gtoreq.30 years of age displayed CAH and signs of cirrhosis more often than patients <30 years of age (P < 0.01). Chronic non-A non-B hepatitis is a slowly progressive disease with a high incidence of cirrhosis, especially in patients .gtoreq.30 years of age and when caused by blood transfusion.