Association between quantitative HBsAg, DNA viral load and HBV genotypes of hepatitis B virus in Vietnamese hepatitis B patients

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the association among quantitative HBsAg, HBV viral load and hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes in sera of HBV infected patients in Vietnam. A descriptive cross sectional study was conductedon 480 serum samples collected from people with hepatitis B infection at Vietnam Germany Hospital from September, 2019 to September, 2020. The study results showed the prevalent HBV genotypes were genotype B, C and a recombinant genotype B/C accounting for the rate of 36.88% (177/480), 4.79% (23/480) and 2.92% (14/480), respectively. Analyzing by Mann Whitney algorithm, HBV DNA loads were higher in recombinant genotype B/C or genotype C than in genotype B (p < 0.01). There was a significant correlation between quantitative HBsAg and HBV DNA load with Spearman corellation coeffection was r = 0.76 (p < 0.001). Therefore, quantitative HBsAg can be used as a surrogate marker to monitor the disease status in the hepatitis B patients in the community.