Hepatitis Monthly
Volume:12 Issue: 3, Mar 2012

Context: Oxidative damage due to oxidative stress is the failure of the cell's defense against the deleterious effects of harmful agents by means of its numerous autoprotective mechanisms. oxidative stress is a key impairment induced by various conditions, including atherosclerosis, hypertension, ischemia-reperfusion, hepatitis, pancreatitis, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases.Evidence Acquisition: Oxidative stress is a common pathogenetic mechanism contributing to the initiation and progression of hepatic damage in cases of inflammatory liver disorders, including acute and chronic hepatitis. Antioxidant administration is a good therapeutic strategy for the treatment of hepatitis. Our comprehensive review of the literature revealed that contradictory results have been obtained with many antioxidants and antioxidant agents. Since clinical studies to date have generally involved testing of the effects of antioxidant mixtures containing more than 2 antioxidants and also have been limited because of toxic effects of high doses of some antioxidants, antioxidant therapy for acute and chronic hepatitis needs further study..

Context: Liver transplantation is the best treatment option for end-stage liver disease following hepatitis B (HBV) infection. However, the high rate of recurrence of HBV infection following transplantation is a disadvantage of this option.Evidence Acquisition: Over the past 2 decades, the gold standard of prophylactic treatment for the prevention of HBV re-infection following liver transplantation has been the administration of low- to high-dose hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIg) along with an antiviral agent to induce passive immunity. The effectiveness of HBIg in preventing the recurrence of HBV depends on the dosage, route of administration, and duration of HBIg treatment, and the viremic status at the time of transplantation. There is currently no consensus on a standardized recommendation for therapeutic options that include HBIg administration. This review attempts to summarize the available data on the feasibility of such options. Most recent studies support the use of long-term combination therapy of HBIg and antiviral NAs (especially new agents)..

The prediction of fibrosis is an essential part of the assessment and management of patients with chronic liver disease. Non-invasive tests (NITs) have a number of advantages over the traditional standard of fibrosis assessment by liver biopsy, including safety, cost-effectiveness, and widespread accessibility. The aim of this study was to determine the accuracy of certain biomarkers and transient elastography (TE) alone or in combination to predict the stage of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C (CHC). Also, we examined whether the combination of certain biomarkers and TE could increase the diagnostic accuracy of liver fibrosis assessment.Patients and A total of 446 patients who were previously diagnosed with CHC were included in the study. In the study group, 6 blood-based scores (APRI, Forns, Fib-4, Hepascore, FibroTest, and Fibrometer) were calculated, and TE was performed to validate the stage of fibrosis, compared with liver biopsy (LB) as the standard. Significant fibrosis (F ≥ 2) was predicted with an AUROC of 0.727, 0.680, 0.714, 0.778, 0.688, 0.797, and 0.751 for the APRI, Forns, Fib-4, FibroTest, Hepascore, and Fibrometer scores and TE (Fibroscan), respectively. Severe fibrosis (F ≥ 3) was predicted, with AUROCs ranging between 0.705 and 0.811 for Hepascore and Fibrometer, respectively. Of the biomarkers, Fibrometer had the highest AUROC value in predicting both significant and severe fibrosis. The combination of APRI or FIB-4 with Fibrometer increased the diagnostic accuracy for significant fibrosis (from 69.07 to 82.27 for APRI, P = 0.001 and from 57.74 to 81.33, P = 0.001 for Fib-4). Combining APRI or Fib-4 with TE also increased the diagnostic accuracy (from 69.07 to 80.70%, P = 0.001 for APRI and from 57.74 to 81.33%, P = 0.001 for Fib-4) for significant fibrosis. The association that included Fibrotest was also reliable for the improvement of diagnostic accuracy. These combinations were more accurate or the assessment of severe fibrosis. The synchronous association between a simple, inexpensive score and a complex but expensive score or TE increases the diagnostic accuracy of non-invasive methods for the assessment of liver fibrosis stage..

Hepatitis B vaccination, recommended for medical staff, has a non-response rate of 5% to 32%. In Poland, there is no standardized postvaccination protocol to verify immunity. To determine the fraction of those who have been vaccinated against HBV (with a complete course followed/not followed by a booster) but not checked for serological evidence of hepatitis B immunity and to detect anti-HBs levels in this group by anonymous cross-sectional sero-survey.Patients and Surgical/gynecological staff from 16 randomly selected hospitals in West Pomerania, Poland, were surveyed between July 2010-January 2011. EIA system version 3.0 was used to detect anti-HBs. Of 488 participants (439 females, median age 42 years) who were previously vaccinated (1-21 years ago), anti-HBs status was not determined after HBV vaccination in 361 individuals (74.0%; 95% CI: 69.9-77.7%), 5% (18/361) of whom had an anti-HBs titer of 0.0 mIU/ml (12/18 who were given booster doses developed anti-HBs > 10 mIU/ml) and 7.2% (26/361) of whom had an anti-HBs titer of 0.1-10 mIU/ml. The multivariate logistic regression model revealed that working in a teaching hospital was associated with lower odds of not being checked for anti-HBs after HBV vaccination (OR 0.22, 95% CI: 0.14-0.35; P = 0.0001). The lack of a strict post-HBV vaccination policy to confirm immunity results in the majority of surgical/gynecological staff not checking their anti-HBs levels after HBV immunization. It is unknown whether the absence of current serological evidence of hepatitis B immunity can be attributed to non-response, the waning of vaccine-induced immunity, or preserved anamnestic response. The lack of a booster vaccination response in a fraction of subjects suggests that they are non-responders. Strict post-vaccination testing to document immunity remains the key practice to detect non-responders among medical staff.

In 2009, 3 genome-wide association studies implicated IL28B single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as the strongest genetic pretreatment predictor of sustained virological response (SVR) in hepatitis C infection. Recently, the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) included IL28B testing in their guidelines. The main aim of this study was to develop and validate a simple, rapid, and inexpensive polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method for genotyping of common IL28B polymorphisms (rs12979860 and rs8099917).Patients and Two methods were developed to genotype common IL28B polymorphisms: 1) PCR-sequencing as a reference method and 2) PCR-RFLP as a rapid and inexpensive method. Both polymorphisms were genotyped in 104 Iranian hepatitis C patients by both methods simultaneously. To validate the PCR-RFLP method, the PCR-RFLP genotyping results should be 100% concordant with the PCR-sequencing results. Genotyping of rs12979860 and rs8099917 by PCR-RFLP was concordant with PCR-sequencing in 104 (100%) individuals. The analytical sensitivity and specificity of the PCR-RFLP method for genotyping of both SNPs are 100%. Among these 104 patients with chronic hepatitis C, the frequency of the rs12979860 CC, CT and TT genotypes were 40.4%, 47.1% and 12.5% and the frequency of the rs8099917 TT, GT and GG genotypes were 59.6%, 35.6% and 4.8%, respectively. Also, three IL28B haplotypes (rs12979860-rs8099917) were found among our patients including C-T, T-G and T-T with 63.9%, 22.6% and 13.5% frequency, respectively. C-G haplotype was absent in all of our patients. We have developed a validated, fast, and simple PCR-RFLP method for genotyping of common IL28B SNPs that is more cost-effective than sequencing..

The changing pattern of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection could have a significant impact on future medical prevention practices and therapies. The purpose of this study was to describe the changing pattern of HCV infection in southwest China using clinical epidemiology, and to assess the association between the genotypes distribution and certain potential risk factors.Patients and A retrospective analysis which included 1 208 subjects with chronic HCV registered at the Southwest Hospital (Chongqing, Southwest China) was performed. The information was reviewed and the data collected from clinical records and short telephone interviews when necessary. HCV genotypes were determined by nucleotide sequencing of the CE1 regions followed by phylogenic analysis with the published HCV genotype. HCV genotype distribution was analyzed according to the patient's age, gender, risk exposure, and the initial risk exposure. Among the 1 208 patients, the HCV subtype 1b was the most prevalent (32.9%), followed by subtype 3b (18.9%), 6a (18.0%), 3a (12.8%) and 2a (10.4%), while subtypes 1a and 6k accounted for cases of HCV infection in only 9 and 3 cases respectively. Individuals older than 40 years were mainly infected with subtypes 1b and 2a, whereas younger patients were predominantly infected with genotypes 3 and 6. Subtypes 1b and 2a were observed more frequently among 44.4% and 16.0% patients respectively, with a history of invasive operations. Subtypes 3b and 6a constituted the majority of HCV infections among intravenous drug users (IDUs) (28.7% and 34.9%, respectively). A significant difference (P < 0.001) was observed between the HCV genotype distributions, according to the potential route of infection. In southwest China, the most common remaining subtype is the 1b genotype, but this has declined significantly among young patients. This is followed by subtype 3b and 6a which has increased significantly, especially among young patients. The distribution of such genotypes was also variable according to gender and age. The changing pattern of HCV infection was associated with changes in the modes of HCV acquisition, which raises an alarm signal concerning the major steps that need to be taken in order to reduce such infections in southwest China.

Hepatitis D virus (HDV) is a defective RNA virus that depends on the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) of hepatitis B virus for its replication, developing exclusively in patients with acute or chronic hepatitis B. There are little data regarding the routes of HDV transmission in Iran. The risk factors for HDV infection in Iran are blood transfusion, surgery, family history, Hejamat wet cupping (traditional phlebotomy), tattooing, war injury, dental interventions, and endoscopy. We performed this study to determine the prevalence of hepatitis D in the general population of Qom province and the potential risk factors for acquiring HDV.Patients and This cross-sectional study collected 3690 samples from 7 rural clusters and 116 urban clusters. HBs antigen was measured, and if the test was positive, anti-HDV was measured. Ten teams, each consisting of 2 trained members, were assigned to conduct the sampling and administer the questionnaires. The data were analyzed using SPSS. Forty-eight subjects (1.3%) suffered from hepatitis B, and 1 HBsAg-positive case had HDV infection. The prevalence of hepatitis D infection in Qom Province was 0.03%. The prevalence of hepatitis D infection in HBsAg-positive cases was 2%. Our anti-HDV-positive case had a history of tattooing, surgery, and dental surgery. There was no significant relationship between tattooing, surgery history, or dental surgery and hepatitis D infection. The prevalence of hepatitis D in Qom is the the lowest in Iran, similar to a study in Babol (north of Iran).