Resumen

I read with interest the recently published article by Ramezani et al, in your journal. The issue is important but all the aspects and clinical importance of the study are not clear. According to an international workshop on occult hepatitis B virus infection (OBI) in 2008, OBI is defined as the presence of HBV DNA in the liver (with detectable or undetectable HBV DNA in the serum) of individual patients who test negative for hepatitis B surface antigens (HBsAg) which are detected by highly sensitive tests. The authors mentioned that they performed HBV DNA PCR in all anti HBcAb positive cases; however, we know that about 20% of occult hepatitis B (OHB) sera are negative for all serological markers of HBV infection except HBV DNA. This data suggests that Ramezani et al. have probably underestimated the real issue in the high-risk group. Additionally, another potential problem arises when applying OHB instead of the OBI without established infectivity.

Palabras clave: occult hepatitis B hemdialysis HIV Iran.

2011-04-18   |   341 visitas   |   Evalua este artículo 0 valoraciones

Vol. 5 Núm.2. Febrero 2011 Pags. 149-150. J Infect Developing Countries 2011; 5(2)