Internal medicine

Pathology

Retrospective cohort study

Virus

Occult

Gastroenterology

Antibody

Exact test

Immunology

Alternative medicine

HBsAg

Hepatitis B virus

Alanine transaminase

Cohort

Medicine

Journal of Laboratory Physicians

Occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) may contribute to liver damage and variable therapeutic response in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection.To study the prevalence of OBI and to evaluate its impact and/or that of anti-HBc total seropositivity on clinical outcomes and response to directly acting antiviral (DAA) therapy in CHC-infected patients.A retrospective cohort study was conducted in a tertiary care liver hospital from January to May 2017.Eighty HBsAg-negative CHC patients who were initiated on DAA therapy were retrospectively included. Archived pretreatment baseline plasma samples were retrieved and tested for quantitative HBV DNA, anti-HBs, and anti-HBc total antibodies. HCV RNA, genotype, clinical, biochemical and histopathological parameters & treatment response data were obtained from the hospital information system.Comparison of continuous variables was done by Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests and categorical variables by Fisher's exact test or Pearson's Chi-square test.Prevalence of OBI was 1.25%. Anti-HBc total positivity was seen in 25% patients. Based on anti-HBc total status, patients were categorized into two groups namely Group 1 (anti-HBc positive) and Group 2 (anti-HBc negative). Group 1 patients were further categorized into three subgroups based on signal/cutoff (S/Co) of HBc total antibody semi-quantitative values. HBc total antibody levels did not influence the severity of CHC disease. Comparative evaluation of parameters such as median log10 baseline RNA (P = 0.929 and 0.464), median alanine aminotransferase (ALT 0) (P = 0.519 and 0.449), ALT at 12 weeks (P = 0.875 and 0.594), sustained virological response (SVR) at 12 weeks (P = 0.405 and 0.263) and SVR at 24 weeks (P = 0.265 and 0.625) between Groups 1 and 2 and among three categories within Group 1, respectively, were not found to be statistically significant.Very low prevalence of OBI was seen in CHC patients. HBc total antibody levels did not influence clinical outcome and response to DAA therapy in this cohort.

Evaluation of impact of occult hepatitis B infection in chronic HCV-infected patients: A retrospective cohort study