background blood born viral infections such as hepatitis b virus (hbv) are major concerns in chronic hemodialysis (chd) patients and hemodialysis units. undetected hbs ag in the presence of viral dna, occult hbv infection (obi), is a concern in the care of chd patients and hemodialysis unit as a mode of transmission. objectives in this case-control study we compare the frequency of obi in the c...

BACKGROUND Routes of transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV)/HIV infections are similar and there is a significant rate of co-infection in patients. A study was recently carried out in NHS Fife, Scotland from February 2007 - February 2008 to estimate the prevalence of HBV/HIV co-infection, occult HBV infection and immunisation status against HBV in a cohort of patients with HIV attending the de...

In this issue of the Iranian journal of Kidney Diseases, the case report of “Successful Pregnancy in a Kidney Transplant Recipient With Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection” by Kashif and colleagues1 confronts us to different challenging topics in nephrology. First, hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection has been discovered after kidney transplantation with a negative report of hepatitis B surface an...

Although overt hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection promotes the onset of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients, the effect of occult HBV infection remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of occult HBV infection on the early-onset of HCC in HCV-infected patients. A total of 173 HCC patients with HCV infection were enrolled and clas...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection might allow the release of viremic units into the blood supply network if blood is tested only for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). The aim of our study was to evaluate the actual prevalence, viral load and genotype of occult HBV infections among first-time blood donors in north-western Italy and to suggest a way to minimize...

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 ...

conclusions the significant number of coinfected hiv-hcv patients only had hbcab positive test without detectable hbv-dna. further studies for detection of hbv-dna in both serum and liver biopsy specimens may help clarify the impact of hbv infection in coinfected hiv/hcv patients. results of 103 hiv-hcv coinfected patients, both hbsag and hbcab were positive in 7 patients (6.8%), negative in 44...

In the recent issue of Middle East Journal of Digestive Diseases, we read with great interest the article by Bahari et al.1, “Significance of response to hepatitits B vaccine in subjects with isolated antibody to hepatitis B core antigen”. We wanted to specify some important matters related to the article. Initially, definition of occult hepatitis B virus infection is the existence of hepatitis...

In the recent issue of Middle East Journal of Digestive Diseases, we read with great interest the article by Bahari et al.1, “Significance of response to hepatitits B vaccine in subjects with isolated antibody to hepatitis B core antigen”. We wanted to specify some important matters related to the article. Initially, definition of occult hepatitis B virus infection is the existence of hepatitis...

In this work, we have shown that hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) can coexist in the same hepatocyte using double fluorescent in situ hybridization in liver biopsy samples from patients with chronic HCV infection with occult HBV infection. Digital image analysis of hybridization signals showed that the HBV DNA levels in coinfected hepatocytes were lower than those in cells in...