Clinical significance of surface antigen of hepatitis B virus and hepatitis B virus DNA quantitative testing in patients with chronic hepatitis B and liver cirrhosis

Objective To explore the clinical significance of surface antigen of hepatitis B virus (HBsAg) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA quantitative testing in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and liver cirrhosis. Methods Totally 152 CHB patients were divided into CHB with non-cirrhosis patients (group A, 74 cases), compensated cirrhosis patients (group B, 39 cases) and decompensated cirrhosis patients (group C, 39 cases). The serum HBsAg levels and HBV DNA loads were compared among the three groups. Pearson correlation analysis was used to investigate the correlation between HBsAg and HBV DNA. The relationship between severity of liver disease and HBsAg levels or HBV DNA were assessed by Spearman correlation analysis. Results The serum HBsAg levels [(3.9 ± 0.5), (3.2 ± 0.3), (2.7 ± 0.6) lgIU/mL] and HBV DNA loads [(7.3 ± 1.2), (6.1 ± 1.4), (5.3 ± 1.4) lgIU/mL] all showed significant differences among the three groups (F = 75.564, 30.384, all P < 0.05), and HBsAg levels and HBV DNA in group B and group C were much lower than those in group A, and were lowest in group C (all P < 0.05). Positive correlations were found between serum HBsAg and HBV DNA levels in all patients (r = 0.614, P < 0.001) and also in group A (r = 0.570, P < 0.001), but not in group B (r = 0.267, P = 0.101) or group C (r = 0.232, P = 0.155). Meanwhile, HBsAg levels and HBV DNA loads were negative correlated with the severity of liver cirrhosis (r = -0.741, P < 0.001; r = -0.583, P < 0.001). Conclusion The heavier the liver cirrhosis, the lower the HBsAg and HBV DNA levels, HBsAg levels combined with HBV DNA loads can better reflect the replication of HBV and progression of CHB. Key words: Hepatitis B, chronic; Liver cirrhosis; Hepatitis B antigens; Hepatitis B virus