Clinical analysis of occult hepatitis B virus infection in 110 HBsAg-negative patients / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objectives To investigate the prevalence of occult HBV infection (OBI) in HBsAg-negative patients, and analyze its clinical features. Methods Serum samples from HBsAg-negative patients from Mar. 2012 to Jan. 2014 in Chongqing Medical University were collected. The amount of HBV DNA of these patients was undetectable by fluorescent quantitative PCR. HBV DNA was extracted with high pure viral nucleic acid kit. The C, S and X genes of HBV genome were amplified by nested PCR. The patients with different gender, different ages, and different serological patterns (anti-HBc+ alone and anti-HBs+ /anti-HBc±), and OBI incidence in the patients with liver injury induced by various etiological factors were analyzed. Results The patients with two or more positive DNA segments were identified to have OBI based on nested PCR, and the positive rate of OBI was 23.6%(26/110), and there was no statistically significant difference in gender, age, and serological patterns. The incidence of OBI was 35.1% in the patients who had liver injury, while 11.3% in those with normal liver function, showing a significant statistical difference (P<0.01). The prevalence of OBI was 31.0%(9/29) and 39.3%(11/28) in the patients with liver injury of undetermined origin and in those with liver injury of defined origin respectively. Conclusions OBI is more likely to occur in HBsAg-negative individuals with liver dysfunction, while OBI is one of the causes of unexplained liver damage. Therefore, prompt detection of HBV DNA is necessary to exclude OBI in those individuals.