title: Histological grading and staging of liver and its relation to viral loads in chronic anti-HBe positive hepatitis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hepatitis activity index (HAI) and fibrosing stage are two important findings during the evaluation of liver samples in patients with chronic hepatitis B. The aim of this study was to determine the HAI and fibrosing stage in patients with anti-HBe positive chronic hepatitis B.
  
  
  METHODS
  Liver biopsy slides of 72 patients were evaluated at the Department of Pathology in two teaching hospitals of Babol University of Medical Sciences, Iran, from April 2006 to August 2011. Total HAI or grading as well as its components including piecemeal necrosis, confluent necrosis, spoty necrosis, portal inflammation and fibrosis scores or staging in considering with viral loads more or less than 10(5) copies/ml were enumerated according to Ishak scoring system.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of these patients was 34.4±12 years. Fifty-six patients had viral load> 10(5) copies/ml. Piecemeal necrosis and grading scores with viral load (10(3),10(3)-10(5) and >10(5) copies/ml) were 0.8±0.7, 0.9±0.4, 1.8±1 and 3.8±1.9, 4.4±2, 5.9±2.6, respectively (p=0.005 and p=0.04, respectively). There was not any significant difference with fibrosis stage regarding different viral loads. In total, 18 cases had fibrosis scores > 1 and 24 cases had confluent necrosis. HAI≥4 was seen in 29 (60.4%) of the 48 cases without confluent necrosis and in 23 out of 24 cases with confluent necrosis (p=0.007).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results show that piecemeal necrosis and higher grading scores are associated with higher viral loads. The presence of confluent necrosis is associated with more severe diseases.
authors.affiliation: Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
authors.forename: Shahriar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shafaei
authors.forename: Shima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Soleimani Amiri
authors.forename: Mahmoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hajiahmadi
authors.forename: Mahmoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sadeghi-Haddad-Zavareh
authors.forename: Masomeh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bayani
keywords: Confluent necrosis; Grade; Stage; Viral load