THE GENOTYPE SHIFT AND ITS CLINICAL IMPACT OF ACUTE HEPATITIS A IN KOREA : NATIONWIDE MULTICENTER STUDY

초록

Background/Aims : Recently, explosive increasing incidence and the more serious clinical features of acute hepatitis A(AHA)has been reported in Korea. Almost all reported genotype was IA until the end of 1900s in Korea(Byun et al. 2001;16:519-524). Therefore, we investigated whether there is a genotype shift and the change of genotype influence the clinical features in Korean AHA. Methods: Nationwide 24 major medical centers participated in this study. From June 2007 to May 2009, we enrolled 1333 AHA patients, prospectively. Among them, we performed nested RT-PCR using 546 patients’ serum samples. We performed phylogenetic analysis and then compared the clinical features according to genotype.