Association between hepatitis B virus markers and liver fibrosis staging in patients with chronic hepatitis B
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Existing assessment systems for chronic hepatitis B (CHB)-associated liver fibrosis (LF) exhibit insufficient accuracy, thereby requiring further improvements. AIM: To investigate the association of LF staging with hepatitis B core antibody (HBcAb), hepatitis B virus DNA (HBV-DNA), and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in patients with CHB. METHODS: = 68) following the rigorous LF staging criteria. HBcAb, HBV-DNA, and HBsAg concentrations were measured. Pearson correlations were employed to examine the correlations of HBcAb with HBV-DNA and HBsAg, whereas Spearman correlation analysis was conducted to identify the associations of the three with LF staging. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were further used to analyze the performance of these biomarkers in diagnosing LF stages. Furthermore, binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the association of these three with LF progression in CHB. RESULTS: their mild counterparts. A positive correlation was observed between HBV-DNA and HBsAg, whereas both markers were inversely associated with HBcAb. Moreover, LF staging exhibited a significant positive correlation with HBcAb and an inverse connection with HBV-DNA and HBsAg. The receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed area under the curve values of 0.715, 0.799, and 0.662 for HBcAb, HBV-DNA, and HBsAg in diagnosing LF staging, respectively. Combining these markers improved the area under the curve to 0.851. The final analysis identified HBcAb as promoting fibrosis advancement (odds ratio = 2.765), whereas HBV-DNA demonstrated protective properties (odds ratio = 0.247). CONCLUSION: HBcAb is negatively correlated with HBV-DNA and HBsAg but positively associated with LF staging. All three markers are valuable in assessing LF staging, and their combined use presents the highest diagnostic efficacy. Importantly, a high HBcAb/low HBV-DNA profile markedly increased fibrosis progression risks in CHB-affected individuals.
Authors: Xiao-Jing Huang, Xiao Zheng, Kai Wang
Language: English
Topic: Hepatitis B Virus Studies
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4415854954