Liver biopsy and clinical characteristics of inactive HBsAg carriers / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To assess the liver biopsy and the clinical characteristics of inactive HBsAg carriers.Methods One hundred and ten inactive HBsAg carriers,including 76 males and 34 females aged (38.9 ± 9.4) years (21-66),underwent liver biopsy from January 2011 to September 2015,the histopathological findings and clinical features were analyzed.Among 110 cases the inflammation activity (A) was ＜ A2 in 73 cases and ≥A2 in 37 cases;the fibrosis (F) ＜ F2 in 63 cases and ≥F2 in 47 cases.The upper limits of normal (ULN) for ALT was defined as 30 U/L for men and 19 U/L for women according to World Health Organization (WHO) standard,and 50 U/L for men and 40 U/L for women according to Chinese national standard.There were 59 cases with ALT ＜ 1 × ULN of WHO standard and 110 cases with ALT ＜ 1 × ULN of Chinese standard.Results In 110 inactive HBsAg carriers,there were 100 cases (90.9％) ≥A1 and 37 cases (33.6％) ≥A2,84 cases (76.3％) ≥F1 and 47 cases (42.7％) ≥F2.The severity of A and F were both higher in males than that in females,especially that of F (U =2.162,P =0.032;x2 =5.315,P =0.021).But there were no statistical differences between WHO standard group and Chinese standard group (U =0.951,0.435;P =0.341,0.663).Along with the increase of age,the degrees of A and F aggravated (F =3.705,5.915;P =0.014,0.001).The average ages in ≥ A2 group and ≥F2 group were (41.7 ± 9.6) years and (38.7 ± 8.1) years,respectively.The independent risk factors for severity of A and F were age,gender (male) and age,respectively.Conclusion There may be histological damages of varying degree in liver tissues of most inactive HBsAg carriers,and for those aged 40 years and over,especially males screening of liver histological activity and fibrosis would be necessary.