Correlation between HBV DNA levels, HBeAg and Liver function tests in untreated Chronic Hepatitis B patients

Chronic hepatitis B is a condition where various prognostic markers guide in therapy with antiviral agents. In this study we identified all the untreated chronic hepatitis ‘B’ patients, quantified hepatitis B virus DNA in serumand compared these HBV DNA levels with HBeAg AST, and ALT. Serum samples collected from 75 patients were subjected to tests for detection of HBsAgand HBeAg by ELISA, for estimation of AST and ALT levels by fully automated analyser. Quantification of HBV DNA was done using real time PCR. Correlation between HBV DNA levels, liver enzymes and HBeAg was studied and analyzed. We found thatHBeAg positive patients had statistically significant elevated ALT levels as compared to HBeAg negative patients, whereas. there was no significant difference found in the AST levels between these two groups.Significant correlation was found between ALT and HBV DNA levels (p<0.05) in HBeAg positive patients and no significant correlation in AST and HBV DNA level.In a resource poor setting HBeAg and ALT can guide in antiviral therapy. HBV DNA quantitation by real time PCR has a very significant role in determining the activity of HBV infection in addition to the markers such as HBe Ag and AST, ALT.