title: The pigeonhole of occult hepatitis B.
abstract: Occult hepatitis B (OHB), or persistent hepatitis B virus (HBV) viremia in surface-antigen-HBsAg-negative patients, has been recognized as a medical concern during the last decade. The exact magnitude, pathogenesis and clinical relevance of OHB are unclear. This review organizes the published data on OHB and presents an overview of the current hypotheses on OHB's pathogenesis and clinical relevance.Many explanations have been offered for the pathogenesis of OHB, ranging from the inability of standard immunoassays to diagnose OHB to the involvement of the versatile virus-host factors. Also, special care should be taken regarding the diagnosis of OBH. It seems that both shared viral-host factors are involved in the pathogenesis of OBH. Further molecular studies on cohort patients group need to explore such association.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Middle East Liver Diseases Center (MELD Centers), Tehran, Iran. jazayerism@tums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Payam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dindoost
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Family Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. jazayerism@tums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Narges
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chimeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Baylor College of Medicine One Baylor Plaza, Houston, USA. jazayerism@tums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Blain F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Hollinger
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Bayerpaul (BP) Vaccines and Pharmaceutical Company, Tehran, Iran. jazayerism@tums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Esmaeil
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Saberfar
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Faculty of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. jazayerism@tums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Norouzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Faculty of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. jazayerism@tums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Seyed Mohammad
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Jazayeri
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000097:blood*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens