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Original Articles
- A Study on the Seropositivity of HBsAg among Biennial Health Examinees: A Nation-wide Multicenter Survey.
- Dae Sung Kim, Young Sik Kim, Jae Yong Kim, Yoon Ok Ahn
- Korean J Prev Med. 2002;35(2):129-135.
- 2,163 View
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Abstract
PDF - OBJECTIVE
The primary objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of HBsAg-positives in the late 1990's among Korean adults. In addition, we evaluated the association of age, a residential area, a vaccination rate, a family history of chronic liver diseases and a past history of acute liver disease with the seropositivity of HBsAg, and estimated the prevalence of chronic HBV infection by follow-up for 6 month or more. METHODS: A total of 10 areas, six metropolitan and four small cities, were selected. In each cities, one health screening center was selected for recruitment of study subjects. The study subjects were enrolled from a general health examination program that is provided by medical insurance companies. Questionnaires on various risk factors were administered to the study subjects. Sera was drawn and tested for HBsAg by radioimmunoassay. HBeAg and ALT were also tested for those of HBsAg positive. The HBsAg positives was retest for HBsAg 6 months later. RESULTS: Among the study subjects (n= 1816), the seroprevalence of HBsAg was 5.5% (95% CI= 4.5%-6.6%), 7.4% in men (95% CI= 5.8-9.4) and 3.6% in women (95% CI= 2.5-5.0). A past history of acute liver disease and a family history of chronic liver diseases was shown to be risk factors for HBsAg positivity. Among the 31 HBsAg-positives, negative seroconversion rate was estimated to be 3.2 %, Thus, prevalence of chronic HBV infection was estimated to be 5.3% (95% CI= 3.7-6.6). CONCLUSION: In this study, the HBsAg seroprevalence rate was lower than that of the other studies in 1980's, particularly in young adult and women. Considering the public health importance of liver cancer and chronic liver diseases, the further effort is needed to prevent and reduce the HBV infection. -
Summary
- Hepatitis B Virus DNA Mutation, Pattern of Major Histocompatibility Class-I among Familial Clustered HBV Carriers in Relation to Disease Progression .
- Seung Pil Jung, Hyo Suk Lee, Chung Yong Kim, Yoon Ok Ahn
- Korean J Prev Med. 2000;33(3):323-333.
- 1,971 View
- 20 Download
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Abstract
PDF
- OBJECTIVES
Chronic HBsAg carriers are the principal source of infection for other susceptible people, and are themselves at high risk of developing serious liver diseases. In Korea, it has been estimated that 65-75% of the HBsAg positives remained as persistent carriers. Additionally, familial clustering of HBV infection has frequently been observed among carriers. Some would become progressive, chronic hepatitis patients, and others would not. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between various factors, such as the duration of infection, type of virus, mutation of precore/core region in HBV, major histocompatibility class-I, and developing chronic liver diseases among familial HBV carriers. METHODS: Chronic carrier status was identified by repeated serological tests for HBsAg at intervals of six months or more. A familial chronic carrier was defined when the disease was observed in a family member over two generations. Two families were recruited, among which a total of 20 chronic HBsAg carriers(11 carriers in No.1, and 9 in No.2 family) were identified. Data on the general characteristics and liver disease status were collected. Identification of the HBV-DNA was successful only for 13 subjects among the 20 carriers. Analysis of viral DNA in terms of subtype, pre-core and core region mutations was carried out. The type of major histocompatibility class-I for the 13 subjects was also analysed. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS: Seven of 10 chronic HBV carriers of the 1st generation and one of 10 of the 2nd generation were clinical patients with chronic hepatitis, the others, three of the 1st and nine of the 2nd generation, were asymptomatic carriers. This data indicates that the duration of HBV carriage is one of the major factors for disease severity. The subtype of HBsAg analysed using HBV-DNA identified in 13 carriers were adr, and the pattern of precore nonsense mutation in HBV-DNA was identical among family members, which means that the same virus strains were transmitted between the family members. The association between the precore or core mutations in HBV-DNA and the disease severity was not observed. While it was suggested that a specific type of MHC class-I may be related to disease progression. -
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