An observational study in Hepatitis E, sponsored by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Completed at 3 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 100 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-09.
Sponsored by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) · Observational
Background:
- The hepatitis E virus causes an acute hepatitis that usually goes away by itself. Researchers in France studied people who received a liver or kidney transplant. They found that hepatitis E may not go away by itself in these people. It becomes chronic. This can cause serious liver disease. More than half the people who had organ transplant who had hepatitis E seemed to get a chronic infection.
Researchers want to find out if hepatitis E happens this often in patients who have liver, kidney, or small bowel transplants in the United States. If it does, they want to know why. They want to know if chronic hepatitis E will become an important medical problem. This research might help improve care for people who have a transplant. It also might help researchers prevent the spread of hepatitis E.
Objective:
- To see how many patients who have received or are waiting for certain transplants have antibodies to hepatitis E virus.
Eligibility:
- Adults over age 18 who have had a liver, kidney, liver and kidney, or small bowel transplant, or are on a waiting list for one.
Design:
Hepatitis E virus infection commonly presents as an acute self-limiting hepatitis in the developing world. However there have been reports that chronic hepatitis E may develop in immunocompromised subjects such as renal and liver transplant recipients. Progression to cirrhosis has also been reported in patients with chronic hepatitis E infection. We hypothesize that immunosuppression post-organ transplantation predisposes individuals to increased susceptibility to hepatitis E infection. Therefore, in this study, we wish to determine the seroprevalence of antibody to hepatitis E IgG in organ transplant recipients (an immunosuppressed population) and compare it to patients who are on organ transplant waitlist (not immunosuppressed). We plan to study samples and date from 300 organ transplant recipients and 300 patients on waitlist for liver, kidney or intestinal transplantation and control for age, gender, organ and transplant center. Three transplant centers (2 in the mid-Atlantic area and one in the Mid-West) will each enroll 100 cases and controls. A minimum of 50 cases at each site will be liver transplant recipients. Cases will be stratified based on number of years post transplant one, two or greater than or equal to three years. Consecutive patients who are eligible and agree to participate in the study will be enrolled. A brief questionnaire to assess risk factors for acquisition of hepatitis E will be administered and 8mls of blood will be drawn in a serum separator tube for anti HEV IgG, anti HEV IgM and HEV RNA testing analysis at the NIH. Subjects who are confirmed to have acute or chronic HEV infection will be managed according to standard of care at each respective transplant centers.
37 studies on the registry are indexed under Hepatitis E; 9 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 447 is close to the median of 436 across 11 observational studies indexed under Hepatitis E.
Browse Hepatitis E studies →National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) is the lead sponsor of 538 studies on the registry; 55 are open to participants now.
Of its 80 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 51 (64%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Tertiary referral center with liver transplant program
Inclusion criteria for post-transplant subjects
Exclusion criteria for post-transplant subjects:
Inclusion criteria for waitlist subjects:
Exclusion criteria for waitlist subjects:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Immunosuppression
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Recipients of either liver, kidney, liver and kidney, and small bowel transplants
Patients on waitlist for liver, kidney or intestinal transplantation
Seroprevalence of anti-HEV
Seroprevalence of antibody to hepatitis E IgG
Time frame: Baseline
Ran from Jul 2014 to primary completion in Feb 2019, 54 months.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is completed, as verified in Apr 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) →