Spontaneous elimination of hepatitis C virus infection: A retrospective study on demographic, clinical, and serological correlates

Table 1 Frequency of reactivity to HCV proteins in individuals with self-limited and chronic HCV infection

Antibody to	Self-limitedHCV infection(n = 55)	ChronicHCV infection(n=58)	Level ofsignificance
	Qualitative reactivity (npos/nneg)Quantitative reactivity( mean ± SD)
Overall	491/2	56/2	P = 0.2073
	8.79 ± 5.04	13.07 ± 4.14	P < 0.0001
C22p (core)	46/9	56/2	P = 0.0737
	2.80 ± 1.58	3.74 ± 0.92	P = 0.0003
C33c (NS3)	50/5	56/2	P = 0.4142
	2.74 ± 1.47	3.67 ± 0.95	P = 0.0002
C100p + 5-1-1p (NS4)	42/13	53/5	P = 0.0681
	2.09 ± 1.62	3.31 ± 1.29	P < 0.0001
NS5 (NS5)	20/35	43/15	P = 0.0002
	1.11 ± 1.63	2.35 ± 1.76	P = 0.0002

All tests were stratified for sex and age;

¹4 patients classified as indeterminate.

Table 2 Demographic, clinical, and virological characteristics of patients with self-limited and chronic HCV infection

	Self-limited HCV infection (n = 67)	Chronic HCV infection (n = 62)	Level of significance
Sex (M/F)	50/17	36/26	P = 0.1197
	(75%/25%)	(58%/42%)
Age (mean ± SD) M F	38 ± 9.6	48 ± 12.4	P < 0.000113
	38 ± 10.5	51 ± 10.7
ALT (U/L)1 Over normal	15.2 (11.9-19.5)	46.7 (45.6-47.9)	P < 0.000114
	22 (33%)	52 (84%)
AST (U/L)2 Over normal	11.8 ( 9.9-14.1)	28.7 (24.0-34.3)	P < 0.000114
	15 (22%)	43 (69%)
γ-GT (U/L)3 Over normal	15.5 (11.7-20.5)	24.8 (18.7-32.9)	P = 0.022814
	19 (28%)	32 (52%)
Source of infection (count) iv drug use Blood transfusion/dialysis Others Unknown			P = 0.008914
	44 (79%)4	14 (41%)
	6 (11%)	16 (47%)
	6 (11%)	4 (12%)
	11 (-)	28 (-)
HAV/HBV infections (count) None of both Previous HAV or HBV infection At least one acute/post-acute infection8 Vaccination Unknown			P < 0.0001714
	21 (34%)	19 (31%)
	20 (33%)5	42 (69%)6
	20 (33%)9	-
	6 (-)	1 (–)
	-	-
EBV infection (count) Previous None Unknown			P = 0.429214
	39 (95%)10	21 (100%)
	2 (5%)	-
	26 (-)	41 (-)
CMV infection (count) Previous Nnone Unknown			P = 0.360514
	26 (76%)	16 (84%)
	8 (24%)	3 (16%)
	33 (-)	43 (-)
HCV genotype (1a-1b11- both/2b/3a12/other) HCV serotype (1/2/3/other)		11-35-2/3/6/1	P = 0.228314
		83%/5%/10%/2%
	21/1/7/2
	67%/3%/23%/6%

¹Upper normal limit is 23 U/L for males, and 19 U/L for females;

²Upper normal limit is 19 U/L for males, and 15 U/L for females;

³Upper normal limit is 28 U/L for males, and 18 U/L for females;

⁴The amount was larger in men younger than 42 yr (93%) than in the older (57%);

⁵Previous HAV (n = 5), previous/chronic HBV (n = 6/n = 5), previous HAV and HBV (n = 4);

⁶Previous HAV (n = 17), previous HBV (n = 10), previous HAV and HBV (n = 13), previous HAV and chronic HBV (n = 2);

⁷Comparison of self-limited and persistent infection regarding the number of none versus previous HAV/HBV infections revealed a lack of significance (P = 0.1892);

⁸Diagnosis of acute infections with HAV or HBV: presence of IgM antibodies; diagnosis of post-acute infections with HAV or HBV: decreasing transaminase activities, increasing anti-HBcIgG or anti-HAV-IgG antibodies, decreasing anti-HBcIgM or anti-HAV-IgM antibodies;

⁹18/20 patients (90%) had a history of iv drug use;

¹⁰3/39 patients with acute EBV infection;

¹¹HCV genotype 1b was found in 70% older than 42 yr, but only in 33% of the younger patients (P = 0.0089);

¹²HCV genotype 3 was more frequent in individuals with a history of iv drug use than in non-drug users (23% vs 8%, P = 0.5787);

¹³Stratified for sex;

¹⁴Adjusted for age and sex, retransformed from ln-transformation.