Sadia Iqbal, Firasat Waqar, Aisha Javed, Nida Sajid, Tayyaba Iqbal, Qamarun Nisa.
Chronic Hepatitis C; Frequency of Occult Hepatitis B Virun (DNA) in Cases in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Karachi.
Professional Med J Jan ;25(3):409-13.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to determine the frequency of Occult hepatitis B virus (DNA) in cases of chronic hepatitis C in a tertiary care hospital of Karachi. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Setting: Medical Department of Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and Karachi Medical and Dental College after permission of ethical committee. Period: 15 December 2015 to 15 December 2016. Methods: Patients greater than 18 years of age of either sex were included while those with positive HBsAg, history of alcoholism, blood transfusion, intravenous drug abuse and hemodialysis were excluded. After informed consent blood samples were collected and evaluated for HBV DNA by performing qualitative PCR. Data was analyzed on SPSS version 16.0.p value of <0.05 was taken as significant. Result: Out of 377 patients with chronic Hepatitis C Occult hepatitis B virus (DNA) was found in 211 (55.9%) patients. 238(63.1%) were male and 139 (36.9%) were female. Mean age of patient with occult HBV DNA was 56.07 9.19 years. Highest prevalence 99(46.7%) was found in patients with history of Hepatitis C for more than three year (p value 0.02). Conclusion: Occult hepatitis B virus is found significantly among HCV infected patients. A masked HBV infection may interfere with the clinical outcome of chronic hepatitis C and accelerate the evolution to cirrhosis.

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