ABSTRACT
A prospective study was carried to determine the relative frequency of hepatitis A, B and C in patients with elevated liver enzymes (transaminases greater than two times normal) who had a viral hepatitis profile requested by their physicians between August of 1990 and July of 1992 in the Angeles Hospital in Mexico City. Prevalence of serological evidence of HBsAg and anti-hepatitis C antibodies was also studied in healthy blood donors seen at the hospital's blood bank during the same period. Among the 405 patients with elevated liver enzymes, 24.7 per cent had acute hepatitis A (positive anti-hepatitis A IgM), 7.9 per cent had active hepatitis B (positive HBsAg and/or HBcAb IgM) and 14.8 per cent had active or previous hepatitis C as evidenced by the presence of anti-hepatitis C antibodies. In blood donors the incidence of anti-hepatitis C and HBsAg was 0.61 and 0.32 per cent, respectively. A percentage of 46.2 of patients with anti-hepatitis C antibodies and transaminases greater than two-times normal had a past history of one or more blood transfusions. These data suggest that infection with the hepatitis C virus is more common than that caused by the B virus in both healthy blood donors, as well as in patients with hepatitis in this hospital.
