An etiological analysis of liver cirrhosis and comparison of clinical characteristics between HBeAg-negative and HBeAg-positive patients with liver cirrhosis

Objective To analyze the causes of liver cirrhosis and investigate the clinical characteristics of HBeAg-negative and HBeAg-positive patients with liver cirrhosis through a cross-sectional retrospective analysis.Methods The data on 599 patients with liver cirrhosis were retrospectively analyzed to investigate the etiology of liver cirrhosis. Serum ALT levels, quantitative HBV DNA, PLT levels, ages, and CTP score were analyzed and compared between HBeAg-negative and HBeAg-positive patients. Results 557 of 599 (92.99%) cases of cirrhosis were induced by viral hepatitis and most infected with HBV. HBeAg was negative in 306 (62.3%) patients with cirrhosis and positive in the remaining 185 (37.7%). Patients with HBeAg-negative were markedly older but had lower serum ALT and HBV DNA levels than those with HBeAg-positive. There was no significant difference in CTP score between HBeAg-negative and HBeAg-positive patients. Conclusions The great majority of liver cirrhosis in our nation are induced by viral hepatitis,especially HBeAg-negative hepatitis B. Patients with HBeAg-negative cirrhosis are similar to those with HBeAg-positive in the severity of the disease. Antiviral therapy and control of hepatic inflammation can relieve deterioration of cirrhosis no matter the patient is HBeAg-positive or not but has a high virus load.