Follow-Up of Chronic Hepatitis B Carriers: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive-Analytical Study

Hepatitis B is a serious liver infection and one of the 5 leading causes of death around the world. Chronic hepatitis B has a variant natural history. Around one-third of patients with chronic hepatitis may eventually develop cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. The aim of this study was to follow-up chronic hepatitis B carriers.
This cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study was done on 235 chronic hepatitis B carriers, who referred to an infectious disease and tropical medicine clinic, in Birjand, Iran. All chronic hepatitis B carriers, who had referred to the study settings from 2005 to 2013, were approached. Data were entered in the SPSS software (v. 21.0) and analyzed via the Chi-square and the Fisher’s exact tests at a significance level of less than 0.5.
The majority of participants were male (132 cases, 56.2%) and married (193 cases, 82.1%) and were aged 33.3 ± 0.7. The follow-up mean time was 5 years with a range of 3 to 9 years. During this follow-up period, 10 individuals (4%) experienced seroconversion from hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positivity to negativity, 35 (15%) developed active hepatitis, 8 (3.5%) developed cirrhosis, and 2 (1%) developed liver cancer. The remaining 180 participants (76.5%) had inactive hepatitis. Among participants, 45 (19%) were hepatitis B e antigen-positive, 24.5% of whom experienced positivity to negativity seroconversion.
Most chronic hepatitis B carriers are primarily asymptomatic. However, 15% developed serious liver disease over time. Therefore, careful lifelong follow-up assessments are needed for early diagnosis and prevention.