title: Hepatitis B virus Genotyping Among Patients With Cirrhosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a worldwide public health problem. Nine HBV genotypes (A-I) have been already discovered. HBV genotypes are important both in the clinical manifestation of disease and treatment response. Moreover, HBV DNA without HBs (Hepatitis B surface)-antigenemia was detected in some patients with chronic hepatitis (occult hepatitis). There is little information about HBV genotypes and its relation to occult infection despite the importance of this infection in Khuzestan Province.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to determine both occult hepatitis B infection and HBV genotypes among cirrhotic patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-eight patients with liver cirrhosis, including 11 (28.9%) HBsAg-positive patients and 27 (71.1%) patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis participated in this study. The mean age of the patients at the time of cirrhosis diagnosis was 54.85 years (range 26-75 years). All patients were anti-HCV and anti-HIV negative. For all the samples, the serological Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was performed for HBV markers including HBsAg, HBcAb, HBeAg, HBeAb tests. The common primer of S region of HBV was used for Nested PCR. The PCR products of the positive individuals were sequenced for genotyping and subtyping of HBV.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eleven (40.7%) out of 27 HBV cryptogenic cirrhosis and all 11 HBsAg-positive patients were positive for HBV DNA. The seroprevalences of Hepatitis B virus HBe antigen, anti-HBe and anti-HBc antibodies among the cryptogenic cirrhosis patients were 5 (18.5%), 1 (3.7%), and 5 (20.83), and among HBsAg-positive patients were 6 (54.5%), 5 (45.5%), and 7 (63.6%), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our study, only HBV genotype D was found among all the positive HBsAg and occult HBV infection. Moreover, high prevalence (40.7%) of occult HBV infection was determined among patients suffered from cryptogenic cirrhosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Nastaran
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ansari
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Manochehr
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Makvandi
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Ali Reza
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Samarbaf-Zadeh
keywords: Cirrhosis; Genotyping Techniques; Hepatitis B virus; Occult