[Relevancy between liver injury, serum HBV-DNA, and intrahepatic HBcAg in young male chronic HBV carriers].
OBJECTIVE
Although the viral load is correlated with HBcAg, liver injury was not correlated to viral load in HBeAg positive patient. We aimed to study the inter-relationship of clinical parameters such as the level of HBV-DNA, the level of aminotransferase, intrahepatic expression of HBcAg and severity of histological liver damage in the young male chronic HBV carriers according to HBeAg status.


METHODS
The study group included 85 young male patients (mean age: 19.8) with biopsy-proven chronic hepatitis B (HBeAg-positive group: n=60, HBeAg-negative group: n=25).


RESULTS
Serum levels of HBV-DNA and the expression of intrahepatic HBcAg in the HBeAg-positive group were significantly higher than in the HBeAg-negative (p<0.001), but fibrosis score was lower (p<0.01). Serum levels of HBV-DNA positively correlated with lobular activity, portal/periportal activity, biochemical activities in the HBeAg-negative group but negatively correlated in the HBeAg-positive group. There were no significant differences in histological activity according to the pattern of expression of intrahepatic HBcAg in both groups. The lobular activity correlated positively with biochemical activity in both groups, and portal/periportal activity correlated with biochemical activity only in the HBeAg-positive group.


CONCLUSIONS
There are close correlations among liver injury, intrahepatic expression of HBcAg, and detectable HBV-DNA in the young male chronic HBV carriers with HBeAg-negativity, but in the HBeAg-positive group, the correlations are diversified.
Kim
Tae Hyeon
TH
Department of Internal Medicine, Wonkwang University School of Medicine, Iksan, Korea.
Kim
Yong Sung
YS
Yeom
Joo Jin
JJ
Cho
Eun Young
EY
Kim
Hee Sik
HS
Kim
Haak Cheoul
HC
Park
Do-Shim
DS
Cho
Ji-Heun
JH
Yoon
Gi-Jung
GJ
Moon
Heung-Bae
HB
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens / Q000032:analysis*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D019562:Viral Load
D004279:DNA, Viral; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens