Hepatitis-B virus infection; to describe the clinical presentation in children

ABSTRACT

To describe the clinical presentations of hepatitis B virus infection in children. Children presenting with symptoms of liver diseases and other diseases who were found to be HBsAg positive by screening or ELISA method were enrolled. Children suffering from thalassemia, hemophilia and hemolytic anemia, which need multiple transfusions, were excluded. On the basis of history, examination and investigations the clinical presentation of the patient was categorized. Basic demographic data, relevant clinical history, physical examination, lab investigations and clinical presentations category were entered in the predesigned proforma. As this is the descriptive study, no hypothesis were required. Descriptive case series. Paediatric unit-2 Nishtar Hospital Multan. 16[th] May 2012 to 15th November 2012. Study results consist of relative frequencies of different clinical presentations of HBsAg positive patients. Fifty children who were HBsAg positive were enrolled in a six month period. Out of 50 patients, 21 [42%] were of hepatic encephalopathy, 14 [28%] were with acute hepatitis, 12 [24%] were cirrhosis, 2 [4%] were asymptomatic carrier and 1 [2%] was presented with chronic hepatitis B. There were 40 [80%] males and 10 [20%] females. The overall male to female ratio was 41. Most common presentation was hepatic encephalopathy which has a very bad prognosis, next comes the acute hepatitis and then cirrhosis. There is another inference that males are more and severely affected by hepatitis-B virus infection