There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
The cause of fulminant hepatitis (FH) in children is unexplained in up to 50% of cases.
We report parvovirus B19 as an agent associated with FH in children and compare clinical
characteristics of these patients with those of age-matched patients with FH of other
origin.
45 patients presented with FH. No cause was apparent in 21 patients. Parvovirus B19
genome was retrospectively sought by PCR in serum collected at admission in 41 patients.
Parvovirus B19 genome was detected in serum from four of 21 patients with unexplained
FH (four of 11 younger than 5 years). No B19 DNA was detected in serum from patients
with other types of FH or from 82 patients with biliary atresia. Parvovirus B19 IgM
was detected in one of the four patients. Patients with parvovirus B19 infection had
significantly lower bilirubin concentrations than age-matched patients with FH due
to hepatitis A (nine) or other causes (nine) (poisoning with amanita excluded). All
patients with parvovirus B19 survived without orthotopic liver transplantation, with
restoration of normal liver function within 17 days.
In patients younger than 5 years with FH of unexplained origin, evidence of acute
parvovirus B19 was associated with a distinct clinical pattern. In particular, low
bilirubin concentrations and rapid recovery of liver function without transplantation
were distinctive features.