Liver Histopathological Features of HBeAg-Negative Chronic Hepatitis B in Young Bangladeshis

Background and aims: hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection is common in bangladesh. however, the characteristics ofyoung patients incidentally detected with hepatitis b e antigen (hbeag)-negative chronic hepatitis b is yet to be studiedin this country.methods: we did percutaneous liver biopsies in 36 patients with chronic hepatitis b (chb) aged between 8 and 20 years.they were all hbeag-negative with persistently normal or raised serum alanine aminotransferase (alt) values.results: 56% of patients had significant necro-inflammation. significant fibrosis was seen in 17.6% of patients. serumalt was raised in 38.2%. a high hbv dna load was observed only in 26.5% of patients. hbeag-negative chb isassumed not to be present in the age group studied, since this is the age group that represents immunotolerance tochb. immunotolerant chb patients are positive for hbeag, have normal alt with high hbv dna load. however, ourstudy not only documented that hbeag-negative chb is common in our young population, but the data were also incontrary to what was expected in such age group of chb patients.conclusions: hbeag-negative chb is an entity that can be seen in young population and a significant percentage of suchpatients may have considerable hepatic involvement.