conclusions this study showed that the presence of mutation at codons rtl80v, rtl180m and rtm204v in a, b and c domains is associated with higher viral load and resistance to lamivudine (3tc) respectively. results about 6% (3 of 50) of samples were hbeag positive and 94% (47 of 50) of patients were hbeag negative by elisa method. the patients' alt level was between 16 and 95 iu/l with the mean ...

Variants in the precore (G(1896)A) and core promoter (A(1762)T, G(1764)A) regions of hepatitis B virus (HBV) may be related to serum HBV DNA levels and severity of liver disease. The aims of this nationwide study were to determine the prevalence of HBV precore/core promoter variants in the United States and the association between these variants and patient demographics, HBV genotypes, serum HB...

Sir, Haemodialysis patients constitute a high risk population for HBV infection because of frequent blood transfusion and sharing of haemodialysis machine’. To determine the frequency of HBV infection in haemodialysis patients and see the antibody response following vaccination we selected 65 patients from a major haemodialysis unit where vaccination for HBV infection is not mandatory and selec...

BACKGROUND/AIMS The exclusion of hepatitis B core antibody (HBcAb)-positive donors from liver transplants (LTs) due to the risk of transmitting hepatitis B virus (HBV) does not appear to be practical in Korea, where hepatitis B is endemic. This study assessed the risk of de novo HBV infection in hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-negative LT recipients receiving a liver from HBcAb-positive don...

We retrospectively reviewed 413 recipients with hematologic malignancies who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) between June 1986 and March 2013. Recipients with antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) and/or to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) were regarded as experiencing previous hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Clinical data of these recipients were rev...

AIM To evaluate pretreatment hepatitis B virus (HBV) testing, vaccination, and antiviral treatment rates in Veterans Affairs patients receiving anti-CD20 Ab for quality improvement. METHODS We performed a retrospective cohort study using a national repository of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) electronic health record data. We identified all patients receiving anti-CD20 Ab treatment (200...

The enhancer element of hepatitis B virus (HBV) regulates the transcription of all HBV mRNA, including the pregenomic mRNA used during replication. This pregenomic mRNA is transcribed from the core gene promoter which is located 500 bp downstream from the HBV enhancer element. To examine the effect of the HBV enhancer on the activity of the core gene promoter, we constructed various plasmids co...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to assess the rate of and risk factors for exposure to hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) among medical waste handlers. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2014 to January 2015. A total of 152 medical waste handlers (MWH) and 82 non-medical waste handlers (NMWH) were studied. Serum samples were collected from partic...

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...

The high endemicity of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and liver disease in Sardinia led us to assess the occurrence of HBV DNA in 1,411 sera of two selected groups of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-negative blood donors: 793 with abnormal serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and 618 with normal serum ALT values (determined during routine testing of their blood donation). HBV DNA sequenc...