Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is an enveloped virus with a small (3.2-kb) partially double-stranded DNA genome that causes acute and chronic infections. The impact of these infections on public health worldwide is enormous, with an estimated prevalence of 2 billion acute infections and 360 million chronic infections globally. This review focuses on chronic hepatitis B and the molecular assays used in...

Background/Aim: Hepatitis B surface antigen(HBsAg) is routinely detected qualitatively in Hepatitis B Virus(HBV) infection where its persistence beyond 6 months defines chronic hepatitis B(CHB) infection. Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) usually indicates active HBV replication and risk of transmission of infection. In spite of the emerging use of chemiluminescence based quantitative HBsAg assays ...

conclusions these results suggest that polymorphisms in interleukin-10 gene promoter influence clinical outcome of hbv infection and susceptibility to hbv infection. results persistent hbv infection was associated with il-10-1082 ag (p = 0.001) and gg (p = 0.004) genotypes and g (p = 0.000) allele. il-10-819 t/c and -592 a/c genotype and allele frequencies did not show any correlation with the ...

Remarkable progress has been made in our understanding of the natural history of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the past 25 years. Availability of sensitive HBV DNA assays and application of sophisticated immunological techniques led to the recognition that HBV replication persists throughout the course of chronic HBV infection, and host immune response plays a pivotal role in HBV...

BACKGROUND/AIMS The role of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in fulminant hepatitis remains controversial. This study was conducted to investigate the risk of fulminant hepatitis C in relation to HCV genotypes and concurrent infection of other viruses. PATIENTS 109 HCV RNA positive patients from 334 consecutive cases hospitalised to a medical centre in northern Taiwan for overt acute viral hepatitis w...

In 2008, the Netherlands Association of Gastroenterologists and Hepatologists (Nederlands Vereniging van Maag-Darm-Leverartsen) published the Dutch national guidelines for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus infection. New insights into the treatment of chronic hepatitis B with relevance for clinical practice have been adopted in these concise, revised guidelines. The most important chan...

Sarcoidosis is a systemic inflammatory granulomatous disease affecting multiple organs, including liver, spleen, heart, eyes, and skin. Liver involvement is reported in 11.5% of cases and many studies have reported on the association between hepatitis C virus infection and sarcoidosis. However, the role of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection as a trigger for sarcoidosis has never been reported. W...

introduction: the hepatitis b is a viral infection that causes a big problem globally. about 2 billion people worldwide are infected and there are now about 400 million hbv-dna carriers around the world. hbv infection is the ninth cause of death worldwide and infects about 350 million new cases each year in the world. hbv-dna can be spotted in different body secretions and fluids, including ser...

Infection with hepatitis B virus can lead to serious long-term complications including chronic hepatitis B virus infection leading to hepatocellular carcinoma, liver failure, and death. We report a case of prolonged hepatitis B antigenemia after routine vaccination with Engerix B. A positive hepatitis B surface antigen was found when the individual donated blood 18 days after vaccination. This ...

background and objectives: vaccination is the major strategy to protect nurses against infection with hepatitis b virus. however, some nurses do not produce sufficient amount of anti-hbsag antibody required for immunity against infection. chronic occupational stress has been proposed as a risk factor to humoral immunity. given that nursing staff is exposed to occupational stress risk, this stud...