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. 2022 Jun 24;22(1):570.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-022-07536-7.

Low positivity rates for HBeAg and HBV DNA in rheumatoid arthritis patients: a case-control study

Yue Jia #  1 , Jingjing Zhang #  1 , Lingfei Mo #  2 , Bomiao Ju  2 , Nan Hu  2 , Yanhua Wang  2 , Pei Wang  2 , Jie Zheng  3 , Lan He  4 , Jing Wang  5
Affiliations

Low positivity rates for HBeAg and HBV DNA in rheumatoid arthritis patients: a case-control study

Yue Jia et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: The rates of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients are controversial when considering the reported outcomes. It was speculated that HBV infection status was altered after RA, and variations inn HBV infection rates became apparent.

Methods: To compare the positive proportions of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) and HBV DNA, a retrospective case-control study was performed between 27 chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with RA and 108 age- and gender-matched CHB patients. In addition, the positivity rates of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc) were surveyed among the 892 RA patients.

Results: Compared to CHB patients, CHB patients with RA exhibited lower rates of HBeAg positivity (11.1% vs. 35.2%, P = 0.003), HBV DNA positivity (37.0% vs. 63.9%, P = 0.007) and ALT elevation (11.1% vs. 35.2%, P = 0.024). In the 892 RA patients, the prevalence of HBsAg (3.0%) was lower than that reported in the Chinese national data (7.2%), whereas the anti-HBc positivity rate of 44.6% was higher than that of 34.1%.

Conclusion: HBV infection status was altered after suffering from RA. Compared to the matched CHB patients, low positive proportions of HBeAg and HBV DNA were observed for CHB patients with RA.

Keywords: Chronic hepatitis B; HBV; HBV DNA; HBeAg; Rheumatoid arthritis.

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Conflict of interest statement

All the authors declare that they have no competing interests, and all authors confirm its accuracy.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The comparison of HBV infection status between the RA patients and the age- and sex-matched CHB patients: A The comparison of HBeAg(+) rates; B The comparison of HBeAg titers; C The comparison of different HBV DNA gradients rates; D The comparison of HBV DNA load; E The comparison of elevated ALT rates; F The comparison of ALT levels. ALT alanine transaminase; CHB chronic Hepatitis B; HBeAg hepatitis B e antigen; HBsAg hepatitis B surface antigen; HBV hepatitis B virus; RA rheumatoid arthritis
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The comparison of HBsAg(+) rate and anti-HBc(+) rates between the RA patients and the Chinese general population: A The comparison of HBsAg(+) rates; B The comparison of anti-HBc(+) rates. *The CGP data: CGP in 2006 [8], CGP in 2016 [14] and CGP from 2013 to 2017 [15]. anti-HBc hepatitis B core antibody; CGP Chinese general population; HBsAg hepatitis B surface antigen; RA rheumatoid arthritis
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