Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Feb;95(8):e2503.
doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000002503.

A Retrospective Study on the Significance of Liver Biopsy and Hepatitis B Surface Antigen in Chronic Hepatitis B Infection

Da-Wu Zeng  1 , Jie-Min Zhang, Yu-Rui Liu, Jing Dong, Jia-Ji Jiang, Yue-Yong Zhu
Affiliations

A Retrospective Study on the Significance of Liver Biopsy and Hepatitis B Surface Antigen in Chronic Hepatitis B Infection

Da-Wu Zeng et al. Medicine (Baltimore). 2016 Feb.

Abstract

To investigate changes in the HBV replication level along with the natural course of chronic HBV infection and to examine the accuracy of the immune tolerant phase defined by the serological profile.A total of 390 chronic HBV-infected patients were retrospectively recruited for this study. They were classified into immune-tolerance (IT), immune-clearance (IC), low-replicative (LR), and HBeAg-negative hepatitis (ENH) phases according to serological profiles (single-standard, SS) or dual-standard (DS) with the inclusion of liver histology. Serum HBV DNA and HBsAg were quantitatively measured, and liver histology was quantitatively analyzed.The accuracy of the SS-defined IT phase was low, and active pathological changes were detected in 56 of 112 SS-defined IT patients. DS-defined IT patients had higher HBsAg levels (P = 0.0002) than the SS-defined patients. The quantitative HBsAg level can help identify SS-defined IT patients with potential liver injury. The area under the received operating characteristic curve for predicting the DS-defined IT phase was 0.831 (HBsAg 4.398 log IU/mL; sensitivity 87.5%; specificity 73.2%). HBV DNA was reduced by 4 logs, whereas HBsAg was only decreased by 2 logs with HBeAg positive to negative phase conversion.Approximately half of IT patients defined by SS may have medium or severe liver injury. Quantitative measurement of the HBsAg level can help identify SS-defined IT patients with potential liver injury.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Comparison of HBsAg levels in CHB patients at different phases defined by SS or DS (A). ROC curve for HBsAg levels and liver activity (B). AUROC = area under the ROC curve, CHB = chronic hepatitis B, CI = confidence interval, DS =  = dual standard, ENH = HBeAg negative hepatitis, HBsAg = hepatitis B surface antigen, IC = immune-clearance, IT = immune-tolerance, LR = low-replicative, ROC = receiver operating characteristic, SS = single standard, Std = standard.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Comparison of HBeAg levels in CHB patients at the IT or IC phase defined by SS or DS. CHB = chronic hepatitis B, CI = confidence interval, DS =  = dual standard, ENH = HBeAg negative hepatitis, HBeAg = hepatitis B early antigen, IC = immune-clearance, IT = immune-tolerance, LR = low replicative, SS = single standard, Std = standard.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Comparison of HBV DNA levels in CHB patients at different phases defined by SS or DS. CHB = chronic hepatitis B, CI = confidence interval, DS =  = dual standard, ENH = HBeAg negative hepatitis, HBV = hepatitis B virus, IC = immune-clearance, IT = immune-tolerance, LR = low-replicative, SS = single standard, Std = standard.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Correlation analysis of serum levels of HBsAg with HBV DNA in CHB patients at different phases defined by SS or DS. CHB = chronic hepatitis B, DS =  = dual standard, ENH = HBeAg negative hepatitis, HBsAg = hepatitis B surface antigen, HBV = hepatitis B virus, IC = immune clearance, IT = immune tolerance, LR = low replicative, SS = single standard.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Lok AS. The maze of treatments for hepatitis B. N Engl J Med 2005; 352:2743–2746. - PubMed
    1. Pan YF, Qin T, Feng L, et al. Expression profile of altered long non-coding RNAs in patients with HBV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma. J Huazhong Univ Sci Technolog Med Sci 2013; 33:96–101. - PubMed
    1. Vildozola Gonzales H, Salinas JL. Natural history of chronic hepatitis B virus infection. Rev Gastroenterol Peru 2009; 29:147–157. - PubMed
    1. Chu CM, Liaw YF. Natural history of chronic hepatitis B virus infection: an immunopathological study. J Gastroenterol Hepatol 1997; 12:S218–222. - PubMed
    1. Liaw YF. Natural history of chronic hepatitis B virus infection and long-term outcome under treatment. Liver Int 2009; 29 (Suppl):1100–1107. - PubMed