Clinical Evaluation of HBeAg Quantitation Using Enzyme Immunoassay in the Follow-Up of Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B / 대한진단검사의학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The quantitative measurement of HBV DNA is useful in the follow-up of patients with chronic hepatitis B. However, the disappearance of HBV DNA, which is not always followed by HBeAg seroconversion, may not predict the outcome of the treatment. We evaluated the usefulness of HBeAg quantitation in comparison with HBV DNA quantitation. METHODS: A total number of 89 blood samples from 34 patients who were diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B were evaluated for HBeAg quantitation by the Murex HBeAg Standard and the Murex HBeAg/anti-HBe (Murex Biotech, Dartford, England). HBV DNA levels were measured by the Hybrid Capture System (Digene Corp., Beltsville, MD, USA). RESULTS: Among the total of 34 patients, the changes in the HBeAg level in 19 patients were parallel to those of the HBV DNA level in serial monitoring. In 5 patients, whose results showed discrepancy in the levels of HBeAg and DNA, the HBV DNA became undetectable earlier than did the HBeAg. Their HBeAg levels were less than 100 U/mL and were followed by HBeAg seroconversion after 1-4 months. And, in 1 patient, a progressive increase in HBeAg quantitation was not followed by HBeAg seroconversion after 8 months, even though HBV DNA was persistently undetectable. The concor-dance rate between quantitative HBeAg and HBV DNA results was 78.7%. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that HBeAg quantitation can be helpful in predicting seroconver-sion, especially when HBeAg is positive and HBV DNA is negative.