Author/Editor		Kojc, Nika; Lešničar, Gorazd; Luzar, Boštjan; Ferlan-Marolt, Vera
Title		Chronic viral hepatitis in drug users
Type		članek
Source		In: Ferlan-Marolt V, Luzar B, editors. Viral hepatitis. Proceedings of the 35th memorial meeting to professor Janez Plečnik with international participation; 2004 Dec 2-3; Ljubljana. Ljubljana: Faculty of medicine, Institute of pathology,
Publication year		2004
Volume		str. 208-16
Language		eng
Abstract		Background. In intravenous drug users (IDU) the majority of liver lesions are related to chronic HCV infection. The aim of our study was to determine the frequency and the characteristics of histopathological changes in liver biopsies obtained from IDU. Patients and methods. Patohistological defining of liver injury together with grading of necro-inflammatory activity and staging of architectural liver changes was evaluated in 95 liver biopsies from 951DU with chronic HCV infection. Results. Normal liver histology was detected only in one patient. In the remaining cases, at least minimal portal or/and lobular inflammation was found. The most common type of hepatic injury was mild portal inflammation with minimal interface hepatitis and mild lobular inflammatory activity accompanied by mild fibrosis, most frequently caused by HCV genotype 3. Conclusion. HCV infected IDU are predominantly asymptomatic young males in whom liver biopsy should be performed in order to determine the type and extension of liver injury. Although the addicts actually have mild liver damage our cases could be illustrative to emphasize that additional follow-up would be important in clinical trials. Sequential liver biopsies could be interesting to provide more information about the course and progression of chronic C hepatitis as well as treatment response in these patients.
Descriptors		HEPATITIS, VIRAL, HUMAN HEPATITIS, CHRONIC ACTIVE SUBSTANCE ABUSE, INTRAVENOUS RNA, VIRAL BIOPSY POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION GENOTYPE