Open AccessQuantitative hepatitis B core antibody level is associated with inflammatory activity in treatment-naïve chronic hepatitis B patients
Author(s) -
Min-Ran Li,
Jianhua Lu,
Lihong Ye,
Xuehua Sun,
Yanhua Zheng,
Zhiquan Liu,
Hai-cong Zhang,
Yunyan Liu,
Ying Lv,
Yan Huang,
Erfu Dai
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.59
H-Index - 148
eISSN - 1536-5964
pISSN - 0025-7974
DOI - 10.1097/md.0000000000004422
Subject(s) - medicine , hbeag , gastroenterology , hepatitis b , inflammation , antibody , immunology , chronic hepatitis , hepatitis b virus , hbsag , virus
Previous studies have shown that hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc) levels vary during different phases of disease in treatment-naïve chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and can be used as a predictor of both interferon-α and nucleoside analogue therapy response. However, there is no information on the association between the quantitative serum anti-HBc (qAnti-HBc) level and liver inflammation in CHB patients. Therefore, we investigated these relationships in a large cohort of treatment-naïve CHB patients. A total of 624 treatment-naïve CHB patients were included in the study. The serum qAnti-HBc level was moderately correlated with ALT and AST levels ( P < 0.001) in both hepatitis B e antigen-positive (HBeAg [+]) and HBeAg-negative (HBeAg [−]) CHB patients. CHB patients with no to mild inflammation (G0–1) had significantly lower serum qAnti-HBc levels than patients with moderate to severe inflammation (G2–4) ( P < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic analysis suggested that a serum qAnti-HBc cut-off value of 4.36 log 10 IU/mL provided a sensitivity of 71.68%, specificity of 73.81%, positive predictive value of 78.43%, and negative predictive value of 66.24% in HBeAg (+) CHB patients with moderate to severe inflammation (G≥2). A cut-off value of 4.62 log 10 IU/mL provided a sensitivity of 54.29%, specificity of 90.00%, positive predictive value of 95.00%, and negative predictive value of 36.00% in HBeAg (−) CHB patients with moderate to severe inflammation (G≥2). Serum qAnti-HBc levels were positively associated with liver inflammation grade. Furthermore, we identified optimal serum qAnti-HBc cut-off values for the prediction of inflammation activity in both HBeAg (+) and HBeAg (−) treatment-naïve CHB patients.