Objective: To investigate the clinical characteristics of anti-HBc IgM positive chronic hepatitis B patients and the relation of anti-HBc IgM development to serum HBV DNA load and the state of HBeAg/anti-HBe.
Methods: The clinical data were collected from patients with chronic hepatitis B hospitalized in the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Zhangjiakou city, and in Ditan Hospital, some of whom were anti-HBc IgM positive and some others were negative. Their HBV DNA load was examined by real-time PCR, and HBeAg/anti-HBe was detected by AXSYM auto-enzyme analyzer with the third generation EIA regent.
Results: Totally 200 patients were enrolled in this study. The number of patients with mild, moderate and severe hepatitis was 71, 83 and 46. The anti-HBc IgM positive patients were older and had longer course of disease than those of anti-HBc IgM negative patients. Of the anti-HBc IgM positive group, 45.71 percent and 54.29 percent had mild and moderate hepatitis, which were significantly different from those in the anti-HBc IgM negative patients (30.00 percent and 70.00 percent). But there was no difference between anti-HBc IgM positive and negative patients in serum HBV DNA level, the state of HBeAg/anti-HBe and outcome.
Conclusion: The anti-HBc IgM state of chronic hepatitis B patients was related to the severity of hepatitis, but not with virus load and state of HBeAg/anti-HBe.