Correlation of hepatitis B virus viral load and HBeAg status in HBsAg positive patients

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major cause of chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma.About a one third of the world's population is infected with the HBV.To control the spread of HBV it is important to understand the molecular epidemiology of HBV.Present study was aimed to detect HBV viral Objective: load by Real Time PCR in HBsAg positive patients and to correlate with HBV markers.: A total Material and methods of 100 blood samples were obtained from HBsAg positive patients.DNA was extracted by Roche High Pure System COBAS TaqMan kit and quantified by COBAS TaqMan HBV Test Kit on COBAS TaqMan 48 analyzer (Roche).Results: Majority (48%) of the patients included in the present study were in the age group 20-40 years and most of the patients (60%) were found to be asymptomatic.Out of 100 patients, 80 (80%) were males and only 20 (20%) were females and 28 were HBeAg positive and 72 were HBeAg negative.Of above 28 HBeAg positive samples 16 (57.15%)were having viral load >20000 IU/mL and 12 (42.85%)were having <20000 IU/mL Out of 72 HBeAg negative samples 20 (27.77%) were having viral load >20000 IU/mL and 52 (72.23%) were having <20000 IU/mL.Only 6% (6/100) of the patients, the target was not in detectable (TND) range and these all were HBeAg negative.Conclusion: It's important to carry out HBV viral load testing in patients who are HBsAg positive on regular basis not only in HBeAg positive cases but in negative cases too.As on our study we found HBeAg negative patients had viral load more than 20000 IU/mL which mandates initiation of treatment.