Biomedical Science Letters (대한의생명과학회지)

The Korean Society for Biomedical Laboratory Sciences (대한의생명과학회)
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Virological Characteristics in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients with Concurrent HBsAg and anti-HBs Positivity

  • Lee, Hyeok-Jae (Department of Clinical Laboratory Science, Seonam University) ;
  • Lee, Min-Hyeok (Department of Laboratory Medicine, Suncheon Hankook Hospital)
  • Received : 2012.06.25
  • Accepted : 2012.09.17
  • Published : 2012.09.30
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Abstract

In this study, we investigated the virological characteristics, HBV DNA levels and presence of mutations of "a" determinant in the HBsAg S gene in chronic hepatitis B patients with coexisting HBsAg and anti-HBs. The 18 patients who were diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B were both positive for HBsAg and anti-HBs. HBV Among them, 15 patients were DNA positive. The median of HBV DNA levels in serum was $2.18{\times}10^7$ copies/mL with the HBsAg+/anti-HBsAb+ patients. Also, 4 of 8 HBeAg negative patients had HBV DNA levels higher than $10^4$ copies/mL and the median of HBV DNA levels was $2.03{\times}10^6$ copies/mL, which were significantly high. These results showed that viral replication still existed in most of the patients of the concomitant HBsAg and anti-HBs, and even in the some HBeAg negative patients. Furthermore, mutation within the "a" determinant of HBV were found in 7 of 15 patients. The most frequent changes were located at positions aa126. In addition, one mutation observed for HBsAg only positive.

Keywords

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