Objective:

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis D which is a defective virus (HDV) are important factors involved in the etiology of chronic liver infections, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. In this study we aimed to investigate frequency of seropositivity of HBsAg and anti-HDV seropositivity in this group.

Materials and Methods:

Serums sended to our laboratory between 2010 and 2013 for evaluation of HBsAg and anti-HDV were included in the study. HBsAg was studied with a chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay (CMIA) in Architect i1000 and i2000SR (Abbot,Germany) analyzers. Anti-HDV was studied with enzyme immunassay method with HDV Ab kit (dia pro diagnostic, Italy).

Results:

Of the 202 704 patients evaluated for HBsAg, 9786 (4.8%) were found positive and 88 (4.2%) of these HBsAg positive patients were positive for anti-HDV. Recurrent studies performed for the same patient have not been evaluated. HBsAg results of 3 anti-HDV positive patients, turned to negative during follow up. Twenty five (28.4%) of the anti-HDV positive patients were female.When analysed for age distribution, most of the patients were in the 35-65 years age range. Primary diseases were chronic B hepatitis in 74 (84.1%), cirrhosis in 9 (10.2%) and hepatocellular carcinoma in 5 (5.7%) of anti-HDV positive patients. Anti-HBe antibodies were found positive in 35 of 39 patients who had HBV DNA levels ≤2000 IU/ml and negative HBe antigen instead of high ALT and/or AST levels.

Conclusion:

HBsAg seropositivity rate in our study group was 4.8% and anti-HDV seropositivity was 4.2% in this HBsAg seropositive patients. Even though in patients with no activation findings and which have low HBV DNA level ( ≤ 2000 IU / mL) and negative HBeAg but high ALT and/or AST levels, clinicians must be warned about HDV infection which could be added to HBV infection.

Keywords: Anti-HDV, HBsAg, seroprevalance