occult hepatitis b in patients co-infected with hepatitis c and human immunodeficiency viruses

Diagnosis of the occult hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection in patients co-infected with human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) and hepatitis c virus (hcv) is important due to the fact that the hbv infection may have a clinical impact on liver disease in coinfected hiv/hcv patients. isolated hepatitis b core antibody (hbcab) positive hbv infection has been reported in hiv patients. the aim of this study was to determine the occult hepatitis b in patients co-infected with hcv-hiv. methods: in a cross-sectional study, hepatitis b surface antigen (hbsag) and hbcab tests were performed for all hiv-hcv co-infected patients, referred to the hiv clinic of hamadan. hbsab was requested for hbsag negative-hbcab positive individuals and in the case of negative hbsab, hbv-dna pcr was performed. finally the collected data was analyzed with spss. results: of 103 hiv-hcv coinfected patients, both hbsag and hbcab were positive in 7 patients (6.8%), negative in 44 (42.7%) patients and 52 (50.5%) of all patients were hbsag negative and hbcab positive, which positivity of hbsag had statistical correlation with positivity of hbcab. in the last group hbsab and hbv-dna pcr were done, which resulted in the titer of antibody to be positive in 4 patients (7.7%) and the pcr to be negative in all (100%) patients. conclusions: the significant number of coinfected hiv-hcv patients only had hbcab positive test without detectable hbv-dna. further studies for detection of hbv-dna in both serum and liver biopsy specimens may help clarify the impact of hbv infection in coinfected hiv/hcv patients