PMID: 30242997Sep 23, 2018Paper

Occult Hepatitis B Infection Among Blood Donors in Al Azhar University Hospital, Upper Egypt: The Current Status After 25 years of Vaccine Introduction

The Egyptian Journal of Immunology
Ashraf I MahmoudAyman S Yasin

Abstract

Occult hepatitis B virus infection (OBI) is a challenging topic with much debate regarding its clinical and virological relevance. The reliance on anti HBc seropositivity for diagnosis of OBI is still controversial. We aimed to determine the frequency of OBI among Egyptian blood donors, the role of anti HBc and HBe Ag as predictors of OBI and the possible risk factors. A total of 300 randomly selected hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) negative blood donors at the Blood Bank of Al Azhar University Hospital in Assiut were included. Measurement of liver enzymes and screening for HBV core antibodies (anti HBc) and Hepatitis e antigen (HbeAg) were done. Quantitative HBV DNA measurement was achieved by real time polymerase chain reaction with a detection limit of 20 IU/mL after DNA extraction from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). The prevalence of OBI was 3.7% (11/300) among the donors and the majority had low level viremia (63.6%). Anti HBc was detected in 20.7% (62/300) (group I). OBI was detected in 14.5% (9/62) in group I compared to 0.84% (2/238) in the anti-HBc Ab negative donors (group II). Anti HBc had a sensitivity and specificity of nearly 82% for detection of OBI with a high negative predictive value (99.16...Continue Reading

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