Role of hepatitis C virus superinfection in hepatic pathologic changes of patients with chronic hepatitis B: a retrospective short-term and long-term comparative study / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the effect of hepatitis C virus (HCV) superinfection on the short-term and long-term hepatic pathological changes in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>HCV-RNA of twice corresponding period serum samples was detected via reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assay from 230 patients with CHB for whom liver biopsy was performed at an interval of 0.5-15 years, respectively. The hepatic pathological changes of the patients with CHB who were serum HCV-RNA positive at the beginning of observation and persistently positive between the starting and ending of observation were respectively compared with those of serum HCV-RNA negative and persistently negative patients.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>41 patients (17.83%) were positive for serum HCV-RNA at the beginning of observation. There were significant differences in the severity of hepatic inflammatory activity grade and fibrosis stage between serum HCV-RNA positive and negative patients with CHB (P < 0.05). Twenty-nine patients were persistently positive for serum HCV-RNA in the beginning and end of observation. Compared with persistently negative patients who were 116 patients selected from the above-mentioned 230 patients and they were comparable with HCV-RNA persistently positive patients in mean follow-up time, age and sex, the long-term progression of hepatic inflammatory activity grade and fibrosis stage in persistently positive patients were more speedy (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>HCV superinfection worsens the hepatic pathological changes of patients with CHB and speeds up its progression.</p>

Significance of detecting HBV-DNA by the fluorescence quantitative PCR / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>To study the correlativity between HBV-DNA and the markers of hepatitis B virus infection and different clinical types of hepatitis B.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The fluorescence quantitation (FQ) of HBV-DNA of 105 patients with hepatitis B was performed by PCR, and the correlativity between the fluorescence quantitation of HBV-DNA and the markers of hepatitis B virus and different clinical types of hepatitis B was analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Ninety-seven percent of the patients were found HBsAg(+), HBeAg(+), HBcAb(+); 75% were HBsAg(+), HBeAb(+), HBcAb(+); 60% were HBsAg(+), HBcAb(+); 40% were HBsAg(+); in HBsAb(+), HBeAb(+), HBcAb(+) (or both HBsAb and HBcAb were positive) group the HBV DNA was undetectable. The analysis indicated that there was a significant difference among different groups (P less than 0.05).HBV-DNA was detected in 72.2% in acute hepatitis B group, in 75% of chronic hepatitis B group, and in 70% of cases of liver cirrhosis with hepatitis B group. The analysis indicated that there was no significant difference among the different clinical types of hepatitis (P greater than 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The levels of viral replication were not correlated with different clinical types of hepatitis B; the concentration of HBV-DNA in serum was related to hepatitis B antigen.</p>