Lower Intrafamilial Transmission Rate of Hepatitis B in Patients With Hepatitis D Coinfection: A Data-Mining Approach

Background: the presence of an infected family member significantly increases the risk of hbv transmission, but many socio-demographic and viral characteristics of family members affect the transmission rate. objectives: in this study, we have used data mining techniques to investigate the impact of different variables in intrafamilial transmission of hbv infection. patients and methods: demographic information, viral markers, and medical history of 330 patients with chronic hepatitis b and their offspring attending a referral center in tehran were collected. data-mining techniques were administered to detect patterns. results: the overall transmission rate was 15.7% (5.4% and 27.3% for male and female index cases respectively). in female patients, hbe ag positively affected the transmission rate (49% vs. 23.4%). there was a dominant change in transmission rate of female patients with negative results for hbe ag with hdv coinfection, where the transmission rate changed from 25% in patients with negative results for hdv ab to 5% in those with positive results. in hbe ag negative male index cases, the transmission rate was 1.3% in cases with positive results for hdv ab compared to 7% in those with negative findings. the overall transmission rate was statistically different between patients with positive and negative results for hdv ab (p = 0.016). conclusions: there is a minor but consistent pattern change in the presence of hdv infection which reduces familial transmission of hbv, especially in female patients with negative results for hbe ag.