임신부에서 실시한 Anti-HEV 측정에 대한 연구

초록

Hepatitis E was formerly called enterically-transmitted, enteric, epimemic, waterborne, or fecal-oral non-A, non-B hepatitis. Another non-A, non-B hepatitis, namely hepatitis C poses serious problems of livers to cirrhosis ans gepatocellular carcinoma in the industrialized countries. On the other hand, hepatitis E may not be endemic in these countries but is prevalent in developing countries. Hepatitis E has its highest attack rate in young to middle aged adults, with highest case-fatality rates in pregnant women. But it is not clear whether the pregnncy itself caused more severe disease, whether pregnant women were more symptomatic because of other manifestations of pregnancy, or whether pregnant women(in developing countries) were nutritionally and medically disadvantaged, thus allowing more severe impact of the infection. This study was undertaken with the objective of searching the prevalence of hepatitis E in Korea and evaluate the effect of hepatitis E on pregnancy. A total of 313 pregnant women who visited the antenatal clinic were selected during the period from May, 1994 to July, 1994 at the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Guro hospital, Korea University and taken the test for IgG and IgM anti-HEV with the use of ELISA kit. The positive rate of anti-HEV was 9.9%(IgG ; 5.9%, IgM ; 3.0%, IgG and IgM ; 1.0%). The discrepancy among age or parity groups was not shown, and almost all of infected women have no clinical manefestations. So we concluded that hepatitis E exists in Korea but most infected cases are probaby subclinical infections. But it is considered the patient must take the test for anti-HEV in case hepatitis A, B and C are excluded, and further study in the effect of HEV on pregnancy should be performed.

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