Prevalence and impact of occult hepatitis B infection in chronic hepatitis C patients treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin |
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Authors: | Marion Levast Sylvie Larrat Marie‐Ange Thelu Sandrine Nicod Agnès Plages Alice Cheveau Jean‐Pierre Zarski Jean‐Marie Seigneurin Patrice Morand Vincent Leroy |
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Affiliation: | 1. Laboratory of Virology, Grenoble University Hospital, Grenoble, France;2. Laboratory of Microbiology, Chambery Hospital, Chambéry, France;3. UJF‐EMBL‐CNRS, Unit of Virus Host Cell Interactions, Grenoble, France;4. Hepato‐Gastro‐Enterology Department, Digi‐Dune, Grenoble University Hospital, Grenoble, France;5. INSERM, Grenoble, France;6. Faculty of Medicine, Joseph Fourier University (UJF), Albert Bonniot Institute, Grenoble, France |
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Abstract: | The prevalence of occult hepatitis B, defined by absence of HBsAg and HBV DNA, ranges widely in patients with hepatitis C. This may influence the treatment of hepatitis C and the severity of liver disease. Sensitive and specific real‐time PCR techniques are available commercially and can detect more reliably low HBV DNA levels. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of occult hepatitis B virus infection using the COBAS Taqman assay (Roche Diagnostics, Meylan, France) in the serum and liver of HBsAg negative patients with chronic hepatitis C and to evaluate its clinical consequences on liver pathology and its impact on the response to treatment with peg‐IFNα and Ribavirin. HBV DNA detection was assessed retrospectively on 140 sera and 113 liver biopsies of HCV positive/HBsAg negative patients before treatment. A 4.4% (5/113) prevalence of occult hepatitis B was recorded in liver samples and in none of the sera. Anti‐HBc was not detected in one, three of whom were sustained virological responders to treatment, one was relapsed responder and one was non‐responder. Furthermore, in this cohort composed of 12% anti‐HBs negative/anti‐HBc positive and 20% anti‐HBs positive/anti‐HBc positive patients, anti‐HBc was not associated with pre‐therapeutic viral load, ALT serum levels, and histological activity or fibrosis. Using a commercial real‐time PCR assay, we observed a low prevalence of occult B hepatitis. This, just as anti‐HBC status, had no clinical impact in a large cohort of hepatitis C patients. It therefore does not appear useful to screen for occult hepatitis B in these patients with this test before beginning HCV treatment. J. Med. Virol. 82: 000–000, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. J. Med. Virol. 82: 747–754, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. |
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Keywords: | occult HBV infection hepatitis C real‐time PCR alpha interferon ribavirin |
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