Clinical significance of hepatitis B virus large envelope protein detection for judging HBV replication

Objective To investigate the correlation of serum hepatitis B virus(HBV) large envelope protein(LHBs) with HBV infection and replication.Methods Serum HBV DNA load,LHBs and hepatitis B e antigen(HBeAg) of 282 patients with hepatitis B and 30 healthy controls were detected.LHBs was compared with HBeAg basing on HBV DNA load.Results Among 107 patients whose serum HBV DNA loads were 103 copies/mL,9(8.41%) patients were LHBs positive,and 8(7.48%) patients were HBeAg positive.The linear correlation coefficients of LHBs and HBeAg with the scale of HBV DNA load were 0.972 1 and 0.837 0 respectively(P0.01,P0.05).To diagnose HBV infection,the sensitivities,specificities,positive predictive values,negative predictive values and accuracies of LHBs were 92.57%,82.52%,77.43%,59.18% and 97.05%,respectively,and the values of HBeAg were 62.35%,77.17%,64.08%,51.22% and 89.16%,respectively.Conclusions LHBs is a good index to reflect the situation of HBV replication.The combined determination of LHBs,HBV DNA and HBeAg of hepatitis B patients contributes to the clinical diagnosis,therapeutic effect monitoring and prognosis evaluation.