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Chronic TTV hepatitis
Last reviewed: 07.07.2025
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Chronic TTV hepatitis occurs as a mono-infection, but more often in the literature there are data on its combination with other viral hepatitis, namely: with CHB, CHC and CHG.
An interesting observation was made by M. Pistello et al. (2002), who showed that in patients with cryptogenic chronic hepatitis, TT viremia was significantly higher than in patients with various other pathologies and the presence of TT virus in the blood.
Pathomorphology of chronic TTV hepatitis
Histological examination of liver biopsies in patients with chronic TT-hepatitis revealed signs of chronic focal portal or lobular hepatitis of minimal or low activity. The presence of steatohepatitis in a number of patients with chronic TT-hepatitis was also indicated.
In TTV monoinfection, severe liver damage was virtually absent.
Symptoms of Chronic TTV Hepatitis
In adult patients with TT chronic hepatitis, there is a wide variability in age: from 16 to 70 years; the duration of the disease is from 3 to 10 years.
Clinical symptoms of chronic TTV hepatitis are characterized by asthenic syndrome (fatigue, weakness, irritability). Patients complain of moderate periodic abdominal pain, especially in the right hypochondrium, nausea, and loss of appetite. An increase in liver size is not always registered in chronic TT hepatitis. According to L. Yu. Ilchenko et al. (2002), hepatomegaly in chronic TT hepatitis is detected in 27.3% of cases.
In the biochemical blood test of patients with chronic TT-hepatitis, a moderate increase in the activity of hepatocellular enzymes is recorded: ALT, AST, GGT; in some patients, the bilirubin level is increased due to the conjugated fraction. Ultrasound shows mild liver fibrosis.
S.G., Khomeriki et al. (2006) in an electron microscopic study of liver biopsies from patients with chronic TTV monoinfection observed groups of hepatocytes whose cytoplasm was “stuffed” with virus particles that were morphologically similar to TT virus particles.
Chronic TTV hepatitis in children
As studies have shown, TTV DNA was detected in the blood serum of 9% of children with chronic hepatitis of unknown etiology. In addition, TTV DNA was found in the blood of 65.8% of patients with CHC.
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The course of chronic TTV hepatitis
The literature provides isolated data on the course of chronic TT hepatitis. It is reported about the normalization of ALT and AST activity indices and the disappearance of DNA in individual patients after 2-3 years from the start of observation, but at the same time, the persistence of the TT virus in patients with chronic hepatitis for 22 years has been proven.
Treatment of chronic TTV hepatitis
There is no information in the literature on the treatment of patients with chronic TTV hepatitis.