BACKGROUND Occult infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a type of chronic HBV infection that is characterized by the absence of a detectable hepatitis B surface antigen in the blood and by very low levels of HBV DNA in the blood and liver. The mechanisms leading to occult HBV infection remain poorly understood but include possible genetic mutations and deletions. Recently, it has been shown...

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...

PURPOSE Occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) among HIV positive patients varies widely in different geographic regions. We undertook a study to determine the prevalence of occult hepatitis B infection among HIV infected individuals visiting a health facility in South West Cameroon and characterized occult HBV strains based on sequence analyses. METHODS Plasma samples (n = 337), which previously...

conclusions in conclusion, occult hbv was found in 36% of patients with negative results for hbsag, but positive results for hcv. detection of hbv-dna in both pbmcs and plasma together in comparison with plasma alone provided more true identification of obi.the svr rate was significantly higher in coinfected patients than mono-infected ones. background occult hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection (...

BACKGROUND Occult hepatitis B (HB) is characterized by the presence of HBV-DNA in patients who do not have HB surface antigen (HBsAg) detectable in sera, and is frequently described in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. These viral liver diseases are common and may have a negative impact on the survival of renal transplant patients, especially if they are both present. In this stu...

Occult HBV infection (OBI) is defined as HBV DNA detection in serum or in the liver by sensitive diagnostic tests in HBsAg-negative patients with or without serologic markers of previous viral exposure. OBI seems to be higher among subjects at high risk for HBV infection and with liver disease. OBI can be both a source of virus contamination in blood and organ donations and the reservoir for fu...

The event of mutations in the surface antigen gene of hepatitis B virus (HBV) results in undetectable hepatitis B surface antigen with positive/negative anti-hepatitis B core (anti-HBc) antibody status in serum and this phenomenon is named occult hepatitis B infection (OBI). The presence of anti-HBc antibody in serum is an important key for OBI tracking, although about 20% of OBI cases are nega...