Site is under construction

en Prevalence of Occult Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Hemodialysis Patients Using Nested PCR میکروب شناسی Microbiology مقالات اصلی Original Article <div style="text-align: justify;">Background: Occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) is defined as the lack of detectable HBsAg in serum, despite the presence of intrahepatic viral DNA, and low levels of covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA). Since the hemodialysis patients are at a greater disadvantage if they are a carrier of Hep B, as it can lead to OBI this study was designed to determine the prevalence of OBI in hemodialysis patients residing in Zanjan, Iran. Methods: We conducted an anti-HBc test (ELISA) on 166 HBsAg negative hemodialysis patient samples. OBI was evaluated using seropositive (anti-HBc and/or anti-HBs) and seronegative (anti-HBc and anti-HBs) using nested PCR. Results: Out of the total hemodialysis patients sampled, the study consisted of 58.4% male and 41.6% female participants. The age of the study group ranged from 58.89±15.49, and had received approximately 28.27±27.43 years of dialysis. Additionally, 5.4% of patients had a history of blood transfusions, while 58.4% were vaccinated against the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Moreover, 23.5% patients were anti-HBc positive, while 76.5% patients tested negative. Lastly, 66.3% of the patients were positive for anti-HBs, whereas 33.7% were negative for anti-HBs. Overall, the study revealed that the prevalence of OBI was 6%, and HBV DNA was detected in 2.1% of individuals who were vaccinated against hepatitis B (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Though no significant difference between the prevalence of OBI to the patients’ age, sex, duration of dialysis, or history of blood transfusion was identified, however, a strong correlation between the prevalence of OBI to HBV vaccination was found.</div> ELISA, Hemodialysis, Nested PCR, Occult hepatitis B infection. 82 88 http://rbmb.net/browse.php?a_code=A-10-394-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Elham Samadi elhamsamadi.microbiology@gmail.com 100319475328460017535 100319475328460017535 No Department of Microbiology and Virology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran. Hessam Mirshahabi Mirshahabi@zums.ac.ir 100319475328460017536 100319475328460017536 Yes Department of Microbiology and Virology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran. Nima Motamed Niam.motamed@gmail.com 100319475328460017537 100319475328460017537 No Department of Social Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran. Hamid Sadeghi h.sadeghi93@yahoo.com 100319475328460017538 100319475328460017538 No Department of Microbiology and Virology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran.