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The role of novel HBV markers in predicting Hepatitis B virus reactivation (HBV-R) in HBsAg-negative/anti-HBc-positive oncohaematological patients was examined. One hundred and seven HBsAg-negative/anti-HBc-positive oncohaematological patients, receiving anti-HBV prophylaxis for > 18 months were included. At baseline, all patients had undetectable HBV DNA, and 67.3% were anti-HBs positive. HBV-R occurred in 17 (15.9%) patients: 6 during and 11 after the prophylaxis period. At HBV-R, the median (IQR) HBV-DNA was 44 (27–40509) IU/ml, and the alanine aminotransferase upper limit of normal (ULN) was 44% (median [IQR]: 81[49–541] U/L). An anti-HBc>3 cut-off index (COI) plus anti-HBs persistently/declining to 2 time points, also predicts HBV-R (OR [95% CI ]: 13.8 [3.6–52.6]; 50% of positive vs. 7% of negative patients to these markers experienced HBV-R, P=0.001).HS-HBs and anti-HBc titration proved useful early markers of HBV-R.The use of these markers demonstrated that HBV-R frequently occurs in oncohaematological patients with signs of resolved HBV infection, raising issues of proper HBV-R monitoring.

// Nicola Coppola 1 , Lorenzo Onorato 1 , Valentina Iodice 1,2 , Mario Starace 1 , Carmine Minichini 1 , Nunzia Farella 2 , Giulia Liorre 2 , Pietro Filippini 1,3 , Evangelista Sagnelli 1 and Giorgio de Stefano 2 1 Department of Mental Health and Public Medicine, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy 2 Ninth Interventional Ultrasound Unit for Infectious Diseases, Cotugno Hospital, Naples, Italy 3 Infectious diseases Unit, Caserta Hospital, Caserta, Italy Correspondence to: Nicola Coppola, email: // Keywords : occult HBV infection, anti-HBc positivity, liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, HBsAg mutants Received : May 07, 2016 Accepted : June 18, 2016 Published : July 28, 2016 Abstract Aim: To evaluate the virological and clinical characteristics of occult HBV infection (OBI) in 68 consecutive HBsAg-negative patients with biopsy-proven cirrhosis and HCC. Methods: HBV DNA was sought and sequenced in plasma, HCC tissue and non-HCC liver tissue by PCRs using primers for HBV core, surface and x regions. OBI was identified by the presence of HBV DNA in at least two different PCRs. Results: OBI was detected in HCC tissue of 13 (20%) patients and in non-HCC liver tissue of 3 of these 13. OBI was detected in HCC tissue of 54.5% of 11 anti-HBs- negative/anti-HBc-positive patients, in 29.4% of 17 anti-HBs/anti-HBc-positive and in 5% of 40 anti-HBs/anti-HBc-negative ( p < 0.0005). The 13 patients with OBI in HCC tissue more frequently than the 55 without showed Child-B or -C cirrhosis (53.9% vs . 5.5%, p < 0.0001) and BCLC-B or -C stages (46.1% vs. 1.8%, p < 0.0001). The pre-S1, pre-S2 and S region sequences in HCC tissue showed amino acid (AA) substitutions (F19L, P24L, S59F, T131I, Q129H) and deletions (in positions 4,8, 17 and 86) in the S region, AA substitutions (T40S, P124K, L54P, G76A, N222T and I273L) in pre-S1 region and AA substitutions in pre-S2 region (P41H and P66L). In the 3 patients showing OBI also in non-HCC liver tissue the S, pre-S1 and pre-S2 sequencing displayed patterns of mutations different. Conclusions: The study showed a significant correlation between OBI and the severity of liver damage, several patterns of mutations in the S, pre-S1 and pre-S2 regions in HCC tissue, some at their first description.

A meta-analysis was performed to ascertain to what extent hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-negative/anti-hepatitis B core (anti-HBc)-positive subjects with chronic liver disease are at a higher risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) than the anti-HBc-negative. All studies included had to fulfill the following characteristics and inclusion criteria: they investigated the relationship between HBsAg-negative/anti-HBc-positive serology and the occurrence of HCC, whether a case–control or cohort study, they provided relative risk (RR) or odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), were available as a full text written in English, and were published and indexed up to April 2015. Twenty-six original studies met the inclusion criteria, allowing a meta-analysis on 44,553 patients. The risk of HCC among the 9986 anti-HBc-positive subjects was 67% higher than in the 34,567 anti-HBc-negative (95% CI = 1.44–1.95, P