Author information
1 University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX.
2 Cleveland Clinic Children's, Cleveland, OH.
3 Laboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.
4 Hospital for Sick Children, Department of Paediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
5 University of California, San Francisco, CA.
6 Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA.
7 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
8 University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital, Minneapolis, MN.
9 St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO.
10 Liver Diseases Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Chronic hepatitis B virus infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The aim of the study is to describe the hepatic histology in children chronically infected with hepatitis B virus living in the United States and Canada.
METHODS: Liver biopsies of 134 treatment-naïve children with chronic hepatitis B virus infection were scored for inflammation, fibrosis, and other histological features, and correlated with clinical and laboratory data.
RESULTS: Sixty percentage of subjects acquired the infection vertically, 51% were male, and 69% were hepatitis B e antigen-positive at the time of the biopsy. Hepatitis B DNA levels were generally high (mean 7.70 log IU/mL), as was serum alanine aminotransferase (median 120?U/L). Using the Ishak-modified histology activity index scoring system, interface hepatitis was mild in 31%, moderate in 61%, and severe in 6%. Lobular inflammation was mild in 54%, moderate in 29%, and marked in 7%. Portal inflammation was mild in 38% and moderate in 62% of subjects. Eighteen percentage had no fibrosis, 59% had portal expansion without bridging fibrosis, 19% had bridging fibrosis, and 4% had cirrhosis. Alanine aminotransferase positively correlated with inflammation and fibrosis. Neither age, duration of infection, nor Hepatitis B virus DNA levels correlated with fibrosis. Fibrosis-4 did not correlate with fibrosis but correlated with inflammation. Aspartate aminotransferase/platelet ratio index correlated with both inflammation and fibrosis.
CONCLUSIONS: Chronic hepatitis B virus infection results in significant inflammation and fibrosis during childhood. Serum alanine aminotransferase is a strong indicator of the severity and extent of hepatic inflammation and fibrosis.