Idiopathic Autoimmune Chronic Hepatitis Triggered by Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection is a well-recognized cause of acute hepatitis with jaundice in adults. However, chronic sequelae of HAV infection are so rare and so poorly defined that their existence remains speculative. In this report we describe a middle-aged woman in whom serologically defined acute hepatitis A appeared to trigger the onset of autoimmune chronic active hepatitis. This and two previously reported cases suggest that in certain individuals, presumably with a genetic predisposition to tbe development of autoimmune bepatitis, HAV infection may be tbe precipitating event in tbe patbogenesis of tbis disorder.