Chronic viral HBeAg-negative hepatitis B: Epidemiological, clinical and biochemical characteristics in an outpatient descriptive cohort in Burkina Faso

Abstract

Introduction: Our study aimed to describe epidemiological and diagnostic features in an outpatient's cohort with chronic HBeAg-negative hepatitis B. Patients and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study with a retrospective data collection was implemented from January 2004 to April 2016 in the hepato-gastroenterology department of the University Teaching Hospital Yalgado Ouédraogo (CHU-YO) in Burkina Faso. Results: Overall 325 HBeAg negative patients met the inclusion criteria. The sex ratio was 1.5 and the mean age 38.7 years. The most frequent circumstance of diagnosis was the health check-up (54.5%). The mean HBsAg concentration and viral load were 7861.6 IU/mL and 32 237.20 IU/mL, respectively. Low or moderate inflammatory activity was found in 44% and 24% of patients, respectively at the liver biopsy; 32% presented a portal fibrosis with some septa (F2). 43.9% and 41.6% had low (A1) or moderate (A2) inflammatory activity, respectively at the hepatic fibrosis blood test, while 59.1% and 20.4% had low (F1) or moderate (F2) fibrosis stage, respectively. Of the five biochemical and virological profiles among the untreated patients, the profile 1 represented 67.2% of the sample. Conclusion: The proportions of negative HBeAg in chronic hepatitis B patients are increasing in Burkina Faso. Most of the patients have a high viral load, a low to moderate inflammatory activity or fibrosis stage.

Keywords

• Viral hepatitis
• Hepatitis B virus
• Hepatitis B e Antigen
• Sub saharan Africa