Volume 25, Issue 1, Page 105

Bone Marrow Transplantation
January 2000, Volume 25, Issue 1, Pages 105 – 108

Title

Abstract

Keywords

Title

Fulminant hepatitis B following bone marrow transplantation in an HBsAg-negative, HBsAb-positive recipient; reactivation of dormant virus during the immunosuppressive period

K Iwai¹, M Tashima¹, M Itoh¹, T Okazaki¹, K Yamamoto¹, H Ohno¹, H Marusawa², Y Ueda², T Nakamura², T Chiba² & T Uchiyama¹

¹Department of Hematology and Oncology, Clinical Sciences for Pathological Organs, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
²Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Clinical Sciences for Pathological Organs, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

Correspondence to: K Iwai, Department of Hematology and Oncology, Clinical Sciences for Pathological Organs, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, 54 Shogoin-Kawaharamachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606–8397, Japan

Abstract

It is widely accepted that seroconversion of HBsAg to HBsAb indicates clearance of hepatitis B virus. We describe a 50-year-old man with chronic myelocytic leukemia who developed lethal hepatitis B 22 months after allo-BMT. He had been negative for HBsAg and positive for HBsAb before BMT. Hepatitis B virus latently existing in the liver cells before BMT proliferated during the immunosuppressed period causing fatal hepatitis. Recipients with positive HBsAb should be considered to have the potential for active hepatitis B to emerge after BMT. Bone Marrow Transplantation (2000) 25, 105–108.

Keywords

bone marrow transplantation; hepatitis B; HBsAg-negative

Received 4 January 1999; Accepted 3 August 1999