Clinical characteristics of chronic hepatitis C in children with natural course of the disease

Aim. Identification of the clinical features of chronic hepatitis C in children with the natural course of the disease. Methods. Examined were 168 children with chronic hepatitis C in the age of 0-17 years. Features of chronic hepatitis C was determined by the manifestation of infection, duration of disease, route of infection, objective data, the results of clinical and laboratory, instrumental and morphological studies of the dynamics for the period 2000-2013. Results. Depending on the variant of the infection, all children were divided into two groups: those with asymptomatic (121 patients, 72%) and manifest (47 patients, 28%) forms. Asymptomatic chronic hepatitis C in children characterized by the absence of complaints, normal values of alanine aminotransferase (36.4% of cases) and the minimal viral load (38.8% of cases). The clinical picture of chronic hepatitis C in children with manifest course characterized by the presence of clinical symptoms of low intensity as astenovegetatic (55.3%) and dyspeptic (55.3%) syndromes and extrahepatic manifestations (22.3%). According to the elastometry in more than half of the children (58.2%) liver fibrosis was identified. In 3 children in early childhood (up to 3 years) there was the elimination of the virus. Conclusion. Chronic hepatitis C in children in 72% of cases is asymptomatic; manifest form of chronic hepatitis C differs from asymptomatic form by a faster rate of disease progression.

chronic hepatitis C, children astenovegetatic syndrome, dyspeptic syndrome, extrahepatic manifestations