The potential role of hepatitis C virus in the pathogenesis of the neurological syndrome in chronic hepatitis C

Gut. 1997 Sep;41(3):411-2. doi: 10.1136/gut.41.3.411.

Abstract

A 72-year-old man developed chronic sensory neuropathy (CSN) during chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infection. Neurological symptoms began one year after acute HCV hepatitis and slowly worsened over three years. No conventional cause for CSN was found. Circulating antinervous tissue antibodies (including anti-Hu) and inflammatory infiltrates in sural nerve biopsy specimens were absent. However, the presence of anti-HCV antibody and HCV-RNA in cerebrospinal fluid indicated that HCV had reached the intrathecal compartment, suggesting the direct viral involvement in the pathogenesis of CSN.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Antibodies, Viral / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Hepacivirus / genetics
  • Hepacivirus / immunology
  • Hepacivirus / pathogenicity*
  • Hepatitis C / complications*
  • Hepatitis, Chronic / complications*
  • Humans
  • Immunoenzyme Techniques
  • Male
  • Nervous System Diseases / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Nervous System Diseases / virology*
  • Neurons, Afferent
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • RNA, Viral / cerebrospinal fluid

Substances

  • Antibodies, Viral
  • RNA, Viral