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Query: UMLS:C0019158 (hepatitis)
 30,205 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Viral hepatitis may be classified into three or more forms including type A hepatitis, type B hepatitis, and a group denoted as non-A non-B hepatitis which may represent viral hepatitis of one or more causes. The differentiation of these forms of hepatitis is primarily serologic. The development of antibody to hepatitis A virus can be detected by radioimmunoassay as well as by other test systems. The serologic diagnosis of type B hepatitis rests on the detection of hepatitis B surface antigen or on the development of antibody to hepatitis B core antigen or hepatitis B surface antigen. The serologic diagnosis of non-A non-B hepatitis is a diagnosis of exclusion for assay systems for this form of disease are not yet available.A prototype hepatitis B vaccine has been prepared and is currently undergoing clinical trials. Gamma globulin is now available that contains high titered antibody against hepatitis B virus. Normal immune globulin contains high titers directed against hepatitis A virus. Therefore, for documented exposure, effective prophylaxis is available for both of these forms of acute liver disease. The past decade has resulted in rapid advances in our understanding of the pathogenesis of acute hepatitis and its extrahepatic manifestations. However, it is clear that specific treatment for acute hepatitis and the accurate description of the etiologic agents of non-A non-B hepatitis require exploration.
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PMID:Viral hepatitis. 62 50

It is probable that two or more different viruses account for non-A, non-B hepatitis throughout the world, with a third agent causing epidemic hepatitis in India and neighboring countries. NANB virus(es) is the major cause of transfusion-associated hepatitis, and is responsible for roughly 20% of sporadic hepatitis cases. NANB postransfusion hepatitis progresses to chronic hepatitis in half or more of cases. This form of chronic hepatitis, while usually minimally symptomatic, causes progressive liver destruction and eventual cirrhosis in a significant proportion of cases. To date, the NANB virus(es) has not been specifically identified, either serologically or by electron microscopy. When developed, serologic assays will find their most immediate application in the identification of NANB virus carriers among blood donors, thereby being applied to the prevention of post-transfusion hepatitis. No specific therapy is available for NANB virus infection. Gamma globulin is of uncertain prophylactic efficacy.
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PMID:The current status of non-A, non-B viral hepatitis. 240 71

Viral hepatitis is a constant hazard to all operating room personnel. The anaesthetist should avoid contact with patients' blood and saliva as much as is possible. Hepatitis A (HAV) is spread mainly by faecal/oral contact. Carriers are almost non-existent in this disease and the main importance to the anaesthetist is that he may contact a patient who is acutely infected or one who is incubating HAV. Diagnosis of postoperative hepatic dysfunction may then be a problem. Prophylaxis with Gamma globulin is also stressed. Hepatitis B (HBV) and Non-A Non-B hepatitis (NANB) have a high incidence of carriage, and are spread mainly by blood contact. The groups of patients whom the anaesthetist should especially be aware of are reviewed, as is prophylaxis using Hepatitis B Immune Globulin and the recently introduced Hepatitis B vaccine. NANB continues to be a diagnostic problem, its diagnosis being mainly by exclusion of other causes of viral hepatitis. It appears to be responsible for more than 90 per cent of cases of posttransfusion hepatitis and more than one virus may be involved.
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PMID:Viral hepatitis and the anaesthetist. 642 56

Processes for the large-scale fractionation of human plasma using cold ethanol were initially developed by Edwin Cohn and his colleagues at Harvard to provide albumin as a treatment for shock in World War II. Procedures for further purification of gamma globulins and other proteins precipitating at lower concentrations of ethanol were then developed by Oncley et al. Gamma globulin rapidly replaced convalescent and animal sera for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases such as measles, hepatitis, and polio, then came into widespread use as replacement therapy in the primary immune deficiencies, which emerged in the antibiotic era of the early 1950s. Although it took 40 years to develop preparations of gamma globulin that could be safely given intravenously, the eventual accomplishment of that goal has led to better treatment of antibody deficiency syndromes and also the wide use of high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Those uses continue to expand even as monoclonal antibodies are being introduced for specific infectious diseases in high-risk populations.
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PMID:A history of immune globulin therapy, from the Harvard crash program to monoclonal antibodies. 1216 2

Gamma globulin was demonstrated by immunocytochemical fluorescence technique in many reticuloendothelial cells of the hepatic sinusoids and of the fibrous tracts in various forms of hepatitis and in postnecrotic cirrhosis. In other liver diseases and in normal livers, even in the presence of hypergammaglobulinemia, few if any gamma globulin-containing cells were found. In contrast, spleen and lymph nodes showed no difference between postnecrotic cirrhosis or hepatitis and other types of cirrhosis or non-hepatic hypergammaglobulinemias. The gamma globulin-containing cells in the liver are on cytologic grounds considered reticuloendothelial cells showing transition to plasma cells and exhibiting little or no phagocytosis of tissue breakdown products. These cells are assumed to form rather than engulf gamma globulin. The possibility that the gamma globulin formed represents antibody to liver cell breakdown products is discussed.
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PMID:Immunocytochemical study of gamma globulin in liver in hepatitis and postnecrotic cirrhosis. 1369 27

The importance of rubella lies in the 15 to 20 per cent incidence of damage to the fetus when infection occurs in the first trimester of pregnancy. The "rubella syndrome" appears as various combinations of congenital defects, chiefly cardiac anomalies, cataracts and impaired hearing. Now that the rubella virus has been isolated and grown in tissue culture, it is possible to study the spread of the disease, to determine apparent and inapparent infection rates and to investigate the nature of fetal infection. It has been found that the disease is a highly contagious one in the family setting, and that inapparent infections are more common than overt cases with rash. Infection of the fetus in the early weeks of intrauterine life may become chronic, and virus has been recovered from placenta and fetal specimens collected at induced abortions many weeks after the maternal disease. Infants born with the rubella syndrome are still shedding virus at birth and may continue to do so for at least several months. Gamma globulin, which is effective in preventing measles and hepatitis, has not been highly effective in the prevention of rubella when given to those exposed to the disease. Successful control of the rubella problem will depend upon the development of an active vaccine, which is a possibility now that the virus can be grown in tissue culture.
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PMID:RUBELLA AND THE RUBELLA SYNDROME. NEW EPIDEMIOLOGIC AND VIROLOGIC OBSERVATIONS. 1429 64