Acute liver disease and aplastic anemia associated with the persistence of B19 DNA in liver and bone marrow.

We observed a 12-year-old boy with acute hepatitis and associated aplastic anemia (AA), where parvovirus B19 genome was repeatedly detected in liver and bone marrow biopsies, but not in blood samples. We conclude that: (1) B19 infection may be underdiagnosed as the causative agent responsible for acute hepatitis and associated AA if no organ-specific diagnostic tests are applied; (2) B19 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) can persist in the liver; (3) during the acute phase of hepatitis, extramedullary hematopoiesis may be involved in the susceptibility for hepatic B19 infection.