Loading...
Current guidelines recommend that patients who have chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection with high alanine aminotransferase levels and high HBV DNA counts should be considered for treatment and that patients with normal ALT levels and low-to-undetectable HBV DNA counts should not be treated. However, consensus is lacking on management of patients with normal ALT and high HBV DNA counts. In these cases, liver biopsy is often recommended, and treatment is based on degree of histological disease.
To determine prevalence of clinically significant histological disease (stage >2 fibrosis or stage 1 fibrosis with grade >2 inflammation) in patients with normal ALT levels and high HBV DNA counts as well as to identify factors that predict signif…