The Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of Hepatitis-delta Infection in Korea

Korean J Hepatol > Volume 11(1); 2005 > Article

The Korean Journal of Hepatology 2005;11(1): 43-50.

The Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of Hepatitis-delta Infection in Korea

Sook-Hyang Jeong, M.D., Jung Min Kim, M.D., Heui June Ahn, M.D., Myung Joon Park, M.D., Kwang Hyun Paik, M.D., Won Choi, M.D., Jin Kim, M.D., Chul Joo Han, M.D., Yoo Cheoul Kim, M.D., Jhin Oh Lee, M.D., Young-Joon Hong, M.D.1, Hyo Young Park2, Ha Hyun Jeong2, Mi-Yong Yoon2, Myungjin Lee2, and Kee-Ho Lee, Ph.D.2

Department of Internal Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine1, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Radiological and Medical Sciences Research Center2, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul, Korea

ABSTRACT

Background/Aims
The prevalence of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) infection has been estimated as being approximately 5% among global HBsAg carriers. The anti-delta positive rate in Koreans had been reported as being 0.85% in 1985. While the prevalence of HBV has been decreased from nearly 10% to 5% during the past twenty years, there have been no more studies on the anti-delta prevalence in Koreans. The aim of this study was to estimate the anti-delta prevalence in Koreans and to study the clinical characteristics of anti-delta positive patients in a single center. Methods: Serum anti-delta was measured in one hundred ninety four HBsAg-positive patients who were admitted to our hospital from February 2003 to August 2003. We checked the genotypes of the HBV in the anti-delta positive patients. The clinical features of the anti-delta positive patients were compared to those clinical features of the anti-delta negative patients from the aspect of age, gender, mode of transmission, the positivity of HBeAg and serum HBV DNA. Results: Serum anti-delta was positive in seven patients among the 194 subjects, giving a 3.6% positive rate. Among these seven patients, six had hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the other one had cholangiocarcinoma. All of the anti-delta positive patients had the C genotype of HBV. The anti-delta positive patients showed significantly suppressed HBV DNA replication compared to the anti-delta negative patients. Conclusions: In Koreans, anti-delta was positive mainly in HCC patients with an approximate prevalence of 4%, and this rate has not changed much for the past twenty years. HBV DNA replication was suppressed by HDV infection. (Korean J Hepatol 2005;11:43-50)

KeyWords: Hepatitis delta virus, Anti-delta antibody, Prevalence