ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the clinical features of hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc)positive patients with liver injury.Methods A total of 212 anti-HBc positive and HBsAg negative patients who were primarily diagnosed with liver injury from August 2013 to August 2014 at Ruijin Hospital were collected for this study.The patients were divided into cirrhosis group (n=60) and non-cirrhosis group (n =152) according to the status of cirrhosis.The 60 cases with cirrhosis were further compared with 60 cases with post-hepatitis B cirrhosis.The general information,biochemistry and immunology data were assessed.ANOVA was used to compare multiple groups of means,and Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used for non-parametric comparisons of the two groups.Results Only one case was positive for HBV DNA with the positivity rate of 0.5％.The causes for liver injury were as follows,60 cases with cryptogenic cirrhosis,which accounted for 28.3 ％;45 cases with drug-induced hepatitis,which accounted for 21.2 ％;33 cases with unexplained liver injury,which accounted for 15.6％;28 cases with acute hepatitis E,which accounted for 13.2％ and 15 cases with autoimmune hepatitis,which accounted for 7.1％.There were significant differences of T cell subpopulation,hepatitis B surface antibody (HBsAg) and hepatitis B e antibody (anti-HBe) quantitative level,red blood cells (RBC),platelet counts (PLT),prealbumin,albumin,alamine aminotransferase (ALT),aspartate transaminase (AST),international normalized ratio (INR),hyaluronic acid (HA),collagen Ⅲ (COL-Ⅲ) and collagen Ⅳ (COL-Ⅳ) between the cirrhosis group and non-cirrhosis group (all P＜0.05).The CD3+ CD4+ and CD3+ CD8+ counts,white blood cells (WBC),ALT,AST,total bilirubin (TBil) and albumin in anti-HBc-positive cirrhosis group were statistically different from those in post-hepatitis B cirrhosis group (all P＜0.05).Conclusions Some patients with positive anti-HBc still have HBV replication and infectivity.HBV anti-HBc positivity and HBsAg negativity may be associated with some cryptogenic cirrhosis and primary liver cancer.Patients with positive anti-HBc are prone to be complicated with drug-induced hepatitis,autoimmune hepatitis,and other liver damage related to immune mechanisms.Patients with cirrhosis have a higher risk to induce immune tolerance and progress to chronic disease than non-cirrhotic patients.Quantitative anti-HBc might be used as an indicator to predict disease progression after HBV infection.Disease condition in cirrhotic group with positive anti-HBc and negative HBsAg is less severe than that in post-hepatitis B cirrhosis group.