［Key words］ hepatitis B e antigens; hepatitis B; case-control studies
To compare the clinical features of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) between types of Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive and HBeAg negative. Methods: Investigation on 44 CHB patients with positive HBeAg (HBe-P) and 36 CHB patients with negative HBeAg (HBe-N) were carried out including asking disease histories, checking liver function, testing blood routine, and detection of HBV immunological marks and HBV DNA. Results: No significant difference was found in sex, family history of HBV positive infection, or splenohepatomegalia between groups HBe-P and HBe-N, of which the average patient age were 29.23±8.246 and 41.53±13.146 (P<0.001), the percent of patients with disease period longer than 5 years were 36.36% and 63.89% (P<0.05), and the average HBV DNA titre logarithm were 8.27±1.328 and 6.02±1.536 (P<0.001) respectively. Conclusions: Given similar clinical conditions such as same liver function level and blood routine indexes, CHB patients with negative HBeAg have older age, longer disease period, and lower HBV DNA titer than those of CHB patients with positive HBeAg.
