Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2019 Oct 15;58(20):2963-2968.
doi: 10.2169/internalmedicine.3028-19. Epub 2019 Jun 27.

Acute Liver Failure Caused by the Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus from the Spouse after 38 Years of Marriage

Naoto Sato  1 , Shunji Watanabe  1 , Kouichi Miura  1 , Rie Goka  1 , Naoki Morimoto  1 , Yoshinari Takaoka  1 , Hiroaki Nomoto  1 , Mamiko Tsukui  1 , Norio Isoda  1 , Shigeo Nagashima  2 , Masaharu Takahashi  2 , Hiroaki Okamoto  2 , Hironori Yamamoto  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Acute Liver Failure Caused by the Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus from the Spouse after 38 Years of Marriage

Naoto Sato et al. Intern Med. .

Abstract

A 65-year-old man presented with acute liver failure and grade IV coma caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in 2017. The patient died on day 12 from the disease onset. The HBV isolated from the patient was genotype/subgenotype B/B1 and had multiple genomic mutations. The patient's wife was hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive when she delivered her first daughter in 1979. The HBV isolates of the patient and the wife shared 100% similarity over the entire genome. Because the patient's HBsAg value had been negative one year earlier, we considered the source of HBV transmission to be his wife.

Keywords: acute liver failure; hepatitis B virus; interspousal transmission; mutation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors state that they have no Conflict of Interest (COI).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The clinical course of the present case. PE: plasma exchange therapy, CHDF: continuous hemodiafiltration. The day indicates the date from the onset of hepatitis.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
CT scans for the abdomen (a, b) and the brain (c, d) obtained on Day 4 and Day 7 from the onset, respectively. Liver atrophy with ascites was observed during the course. Brain edema was noted on Day 7.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
The phylogenetic tree constructed by the neighbor-joining method based on the entire nucleotide sequences of HBV isolated from the patient (HB-17-0816) and his wife (HB-17-0824) as well as representative HBV strains of genotypes A-J. Both HBV genomes were classifiable into genotype B and further into subgenotype B1.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Takikawa Y, Suzuki K. Clinical epidemiology of fulminant hepatitis in Japan. Hepatol Res 38（Suppl 1）: 14-18, 2008. - PubMed
    1. Oketani M, Ido A, Nakayama N, et al. . Etiology and prognosis of fulminant hepatitis and late-onset hepatic failure in Japan: summary of the annual nationwide survey between 2004 and 2009. Hepatol Res 43: 97-105, 2013. - PubMed
    1. Ito K, Yotsuyanagi H, Sugiyama M, et al. . Geographic distribution and characteristics of genotype A hepatitis B virus infection in acute and chronic hepatitis B patients in Japan. J Gastroenterol Hepatol 31: 180-189, 2016. - PubMed
    1. Liu J, Zhang S, Wang Q, et al. . Prevalence of HBsAg/HBeAg amongst 1 936 801 couples preparing for pregnancy in rural China: an observational study. J Viral Hepat 24: 679-686, 2017. - PubMed
    1. Okushin H, Yamada G, Manabe K, et al. . Transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) from HBsAg-positive females with positive e antigen to their husbands. Kanzo 27: 160-164, 1986(in Japanese, Abstract in English).

Publication types

Substances