Evaluation of Chronic Hepatitis B Infection in Patients with Seronegative HbsAg

Background: it is estimated that about 370 million people are chronic carriers of hbv worldwide. apparently 3% of iranian populations are chronic carriers of this virus. we aimed to evaluate the viral dna in biological fluids of chronic hepatitis patients compared to a control group. methods: the current case–control study was designed to evaluate the viral dna in biological fluids of 70 chronic hepatitis patients compared to a control group using elisa, pcr and real time. results: all individuals (100%) in case group were hbsag positive while in control group only 2 individuals (2.8%) were hbsag positive. three individuals , in control group were positive using pcr and real time pcr indicating that about 7% of those in control group were chronic carriers of hbv. the interesting point was the copy of viral dna; (5.49 ×10^4, 2.162×10^3and 7.26×10^6) for 3 chronic carriers using sera while it was about (5.71×10^3, 1.45×10^2 and 2.56×10^5) using ear cerumen confirming the necessity of investigating for the carriers of hbv in different biological fluid and by different methods. conclusion: it can be concluded chronic carriers of hepatitis b are much more than what is diagnosed by routine diag- nostic tests. on the other hand elisa alone can not be relied on as a complete test for screening of chronic carriers in hepatitis b. pcr and real time pcr are more reliable tests for this purpose.