Liver histology and alanine aminotransferase levels in children and adults with chronic hepatitis C infection.

BACKGROUND: Chronic hepatitis C is often a mild disease in children, but whether this is related to younger age or shorter duration of infection is unclear. Histologic severity has been shown to correlate with duration of infection regardless of age.
OBJECTIVES: We compared histologic findings in children and adults with chronic hepatitis C while controlling for sex, duration of infection, hepatitis C virus (HCV)-RNA level, and genotype.
METHODS: Twenty-one children and 52 adults whose infection was less than 20 years in duration and who had undergone a liver biopsy were included. Two blinded liver pathologists reviewed the liver biopsies and scored inflammatory activity and fibrosis using the modified Knodell scoring system.
RESULTS: The groups were the same with respect to HCV-RNA level (P=0.8), and genotype (P=0.6) but differed in duration of disease (P=0.01) and sex composition (P=0.005). Covariate analysis showed no influence of genotype, duration of infection, or HCV-RNA level on outcome. In controlling for sex, children had significantly milder liver disease and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) elevations.
CONCLUSIONS: With equal duration of infection, HCV-RNA level, and genotype, children have lower serum ALT levels and less severe liver disease than adults infected with HCV.