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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction-Based Detection and Quantification of Hepatitis B Virus DNA
Published on: December 15, 2023
Infectious source factors affecting the severity of sexually transmitted acute hepatitis due to hepatitis B virus
Kojiro Michitaka1, Norio Horiike, Yan Chen
1Endoscopy Center, Ehime University School of Medicine, Ehime, Japan.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to identify clinical features and virological aspects of infectious sources that are related to the severity of sexually transmitted acute hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in patients, especially in cases of genotype C.
Methods:
Nineteen patients with acute HBV infection, 10 classified with severe acute hepatitis (SH) (prothrombin time; PT <40%) and 9 with typical acute hepatitis (AH) (PT >40%), and their infectious sources (all were sexual partners) were studied. Infectious source factors were analyzed in relation to the severity of hepatitis in the patients' partners.
Results:
The nucleotide homology of HBV-DNA between each pair was >/=98.9%. Sixteen were infected with HBV genotype C. Among the 16 infectious sources, age, numbers with elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT, 7/9 vs. 1/7), anti-HBe positivity (8/9 vs. 1/7) and core promoter mutations at nt 1762 (7/9 vs. 1/7), nt 1764 (8/9 vs. 1/7) and precore mutation at nt 1896 (8/9 vs. 1/7) were significantly higher in the sources of SH than in those of AH.
Conclusion:
Higher age, elevated ALT, anti-HBe positivity and core promoter/precore mutations were possible risk factors for an infectious source of the severe form of sexually transmitted acute hepatitis due to HBV genotype C.
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