02195nas a2200457   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653001000055653000900065653002200074653003000096653002000126653001100146653002200157653001600179653001100195653001000206653001200216653001000228653002000238653002000258653000900278653001600287653001500303653002600318653005200344100001500396700001500411700001300426700001500439700001600454700001200470700001500482700001300497700001500510245008800525300001100613490000700624520109200631022001401723       2010                            d  c2010 Apr10aAdult10aAged10aAged, 80 and over10aCarcinoma, Hepatocellular10aCross Infection10aFemale10aHealth Facilities10aHepatitis C10aHumans10aJapan10aleprosy10aLiver10aLiver Cirrhosis10aLiver Neoplasms10aMale10aMiddle Aged10aRNA, Viral10aRetrospective Studies10aReverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction1 aShiogama K1 aTeramoto H1 aMorita Y1 aMizutani Y1 aShimomura R1 aInada K1 aKamahora T1 aMakino M1 aTsutsumi Y00aHepatitis C virus infection in a Japanese leprosy sanatorium for the past 67 years.  a556-610 v823 a<p>Oku-Komyo-En is one of the national leprosy sanatoria, located on a small island in Setouchi city, Okayama prefecture of Japan since 1938. Since autopsies were carried out routinely on almost all patients who had died in the sanatorium up to 1980, approximately 1,000 formalin-fixed autopsy tissue samples were available for analysis. When these samples were reviewed, the pathological data indicated a sharp rise in the death rate caused by cirrhosis of the liver and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) since 1960 and 1970, respectively. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a common cause of HCC in Japan. The presence of HCV RNA was demonstrated in paraffin sections prepared from the autopsied liver tissue fixed in formalin for a prolonged period of time, by employing nested RT-PCR using type-specific primers. The data showed that HCV RNA was detectable in samples of the liver archived as early as 1940, representing the liver tissues kept in formalin for up to 67 years. HCV genotypes 1b and 2a were found by RT-PCR at 85.7% and 14.3%, respectively, in patients with leprosy.</p>  a1096-9071