Occult Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C Treated With Antiviral Therapy
Gian Paolo Caviglia
1
,
Maria Lorena Abate
1
,
Paola Manzini
2
,
Franca Danielle
2
,
Alessia Ciancio
3
,
Chiara Rosso
1
,
Antonella Olivero
1
,
Rinaldo Pellicano
3
, *
,
Giovanni Antonio Touscoz
3
,
Antonina Smedile
3
and
Mario Rizzetto
3
1 Department of Internal Medicine, University of Turin, Italy
2 Blood Bank, San Giovanni Battista University Hospital (Molinette), Italy
3 Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, San Giovanni Battista University Hospital (Molinette), rinaldo_pellican@hotmail.com, Italy
*
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, San Giovanni Battista University Hospital, C.so Bramante n.88/90, 10100, rinaldo_pellican@hotmail.com, Italy. Tel: +39-116333532. Fax: +39-116333976. Email:
rinaldo_pellican@hotmail.com
Hepatitis Monthly: November 1, 2012,
12 (11) ; 7292
Published Online :
November 30, 2012
Article Type: Research Article
Received:
July 1, 2012
Accepted:
July 28, 2012
DOI : 10.5812/hepatmon.7292
To Cite:
Caviglia
G, Abate
M, Manzini
P, Danielle
F, Ciancio
A, et al. Occult Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C Treated With Antiviral Therapy,
Hepat Mon.
2012
;12(11):7292.
doi: 10.5812/hepatmon.7292 .
Abstract
Background:
Occult hepatitis B virus infection (OBI) is defined as the presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in the liver and/or in the serum of patients with negative results of hepatitis B s antigen (HBsAg) test with or without serological markers of previous viral exposure. The impact of OBI in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is still unclear.
Objectives:
The Aim of this study was to assess OBI prevalence and its potential implications on treatment outcome in a cohort of patients with CHC underwent standard antiviral therapy.
Patients and Methods:
Baseline serum samples from 137 HBsAg-negative CHC patients treated with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin (73 Responders/74 Non Responders),were retrospectively analyzed for HBV status.
Results:
Seventy-three patients (53.3%) showed markers of previous exposure to HBV. HBV DNA was detected in 2 of 137 serum samples (1.5%), both carrying HBV antibodies. Liver biopsies and post-therapy sera were available for 35 patients (12 Responders/23 Non Responders). HBV DNA sequences were found in 13 of 35 specimens (37.1%), all of patients with HBV DNA negativity in basal and post-therapy serum samples. Among OBI-positive patients, 5 (38.5%) carried serological markers of HBV infection. Regarding therapy outcome, in the OBI-positive group there were 5 of 13 (38.5%) sustained virological responders (SVR) compared to 7 of 22 (31.8%) in the OBI-negative one.
Conclusions:
Despite the high prevalence rate of liver HBV DNA in patients with CHC, SVR was not affected by occult HBV infection.
Keywords:
Hepatitis C, Chronic; Hepatitis B Virus; Hepatitis C; Infection
© 2012, Hepatitis Monthly. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.
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