Department of Clinical Laboratory, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
Department of Gastroenterological Surgery and Hemia Center, the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
J Med Virol. 2018 Jul;90(7):1240-1245. doi: 10.1002/jmv.25080. Epub 2018 Apr 26.
Serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) level has been developed as an important marker to predict treatment outcome recent years. The authors aimed to identify the correlation between quantitative HBsAg and hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA level in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and explore whether quantitative HBsAg can be used as a surrogate marker of serum HBV DNA for CHB patients. One hundred seventy-three patients were included in this study. Patients were divided into two groups: Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive and negative patients. There was a positive correlation between quantitative HBsAg and HBV DNA level in HBeAg positive patients (r = 0.509, P < 0.001) and poor correlation in HBeAg negative patients (r = 0.176, P = 0.096). Interestingly, completely no correlation (r = -0.01, P = 0.994) was found in younger HBeAg negative patients (<40 years old), whereas in older HBeAg negative patients (>40 years old) there is a positive correlation (r = 0.448, P = 0.003). Mean HBsAg titer and Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level were significantly higher in HBeAg positive group (3.81 log IU/mL; 105 IU/mL) than in negative group (2.85 log IU/mL; 32 IU/mL) (P < 0.001). We concluded that quantitative HBsAg could reflect HBV DNA level in HBeAg positive patients, but could not surrogate for HBV DNA level in HBeAg negative patients. Our study improves understanding of the relationship between HBsAg titers and HBV DNA levels in CHB patient and may have implications for future treatment algorithms evaluating the HBsAg titers in both HBeAg positive and negative patients.
近年来，血清乙型肝炎表面抗原（HBsAg）水平已被确立为预测治疗结果的重要标志物。本研究旨在确定慢性乙型肝炎（CHB）患者定量 HBsAg 与乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）DNA 水平之间的相关性，并探讨定量 HBsAg 是否可作为 CHB 患者血清 HBV DNA 的替代标志物。本研究共纳入 173 例患者。患者分为 HBeAg 阳性和阴性两组。在 HBeAg 阳性患者中，定量 HBsAg 与 HBV DNA 水平呈正相关（r = 0.509，P < 0.001），而在 HBeAg 阴性患者中相关性较差（r = 0.176，P = 0.096）。有趣的是，在年轻的 HBeAg 阴性患者（<40 岁）中未发现完全无相关性（r = -0.01，P = 0.994），而在年龄较大的 HBeAg 阴性患者（>40 岁）中则存在正相关（r = 0.448，P = 0.003）。HBeAg 阳性组的平均 HBsAg 滴度和丙氨酸氨基转移酶（ALT）水平明显高于 HBeAg 阴性组（3.81 log IU/mL；105 IU/mL）（P < 0.001）。综上所述，定量 HBsAg 可反映 HBeAg 阳性患者的 HBV DNA 水平，但不能替代 HBeAg 阴性患者的 HBV DNA 水平。本研究提高了我们对 CHB 患者 HBsAg 滴度与 HBV DNA 水平之间关系的认识，可能对未来评估 HBeAg 阳性和阴性患者 HBsAg 滴度的治疗方案具有重要意义。
