A long-term follow-up study of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome

Objective: To investigate whether there are long-term renal injury and other complications in patients recovered from hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) after acute Hantan virus (HV) infection. Methods: All 104 subjects (HFRS group) recovered from HFRS finished a clinical questionnaire, underwent physical examination, B ultrasound scanning, ECG, and chest X-ray examinations, and the blood and urine samples were collected for general clinical chemistry tests and determination for HV-IgG antibody. Another 84 age- and residence-peered subjects, without history of HFRS, were recruited as control group, and this group was sub-divided into HV covert infection group and HV non-infection group according to whether or not they had HV-IgG antibody. The results of the three groups were analyzed statistically. Results: The rate of seropositivity for HV-IgG antibody in the patients and in control group was 93.27% (97/104) and 27.38% (23/84) respectively. The rate of hyperproteinuria in the patients was significantly higher than that in HV non-infection group (7.69% vs 0%, P=0.027). In HFRS group, one patient had hypohypophysism several years after HV infection, and one suffered with chronic renal disease, and developed into chronic renal failure and received renal transplantation at last. Conclusion: Most patients recovered from HFRS remain HV-IgG positive for a long time, and the incidence of long-term renal injury in the patients may be higher, as compared with that in healthy persons. It is worth further researching into whether the long-term renal injury may be related to potentially persistent HV infection.