Background: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection especially in immunocompromised individuals can lead to chronic hepatitis. Aggressive courses of chronic hepatitis E leading to liver cirrhosis in a short period of time have been described, but evidence on the degree of liver involvement in chronic hepatitis E is rare. We therefore aimed to quantify liver fibrosis in patients with chronic active hepatitis E compared to patients with sustained virological response after ribavirin (RBV) treatment using 2D-shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) to measure liver stiffness.
Methods: Patients with chronic hepatitis E underwent 2D-SWE, B-mode and Doppler ultrasound and laboratory testing in order to assess severity of liver involvement.
Results: In this cross-sectional study, we included 14 patients of whom 8 had ongoing chronic hepatitis E and 6 patients had been successfully treated for chronic hepatitis E. The most frequent cause for immunosuppression was prior kidney transplantation (n=12), one patient was a multivisceral transplant recipient, one had been treated for lymphoma. Five patients cleared HEV after RBV therapy, one patient reached viral clearance after reduction of his immunosuppressive medication. Using 2D-SWE measurement, 71.4% displayed increased stiffness indicative of liver fibrosis: 57.1% classified as significant fibrosis and 14.3% as severe fibrosis. Liver stiffness did not differ between patients with active chronic hepatitis E and in patients who had cleared HEV (1.59 and 1.54 m/s respectively). Compared with a control group of kidney transplant recipients without hepatitis E (1.44 m/s), the patients with a history of hepatitis E displayed a significantly higher liver stiffness (P=0.04).
Conclusions: In our cohort of chronic hepatitis E patients, elevated liver stiffness indicating liver fibrosis was common and significantly higher than in controls. This is consistent with prior sparse reports of the presence of liver fibrosis or cirrhosis in chronic hepatitis E and emphasizes the need for HEV testing, therapy and research on new therapeutic options. As elevated liver stiffness was also present in patients after HEV treatment, continuous liver surveillance including elastography and ultrasound should be considered.
Keywords: Hepatitis E virus (HEV); liver fibrosis; liver stiffness measurement (LSM); ribavirin (RBV); shear wave elastography (SWE).
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