Serum Lipid Metabolic Derangement is Associated with Disease Progression During Chronic HBV Infection

To investigate the relationship between serum lipid levels and disease progression during chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

We selected 73 healthy controls and 163 patients with chronic HBV infection as the study subjects. The chronic HBV infection patients were divided into the HBV carrier group (74 patients), chronic hepatitis B group (71 patients), and liver cirrhosis group (21 patients). The age, gender, body mass index, blood lipid index, liver function index, and HBV DNA levels of all participants were tested and recorded. A t-test or the Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the data between two groups; data from multiple groups were compared using one-way ANOVA or the Kruskal-Wallis Test.

We observed that the serum HDL cholesterol (1.00 ± 0.30 mmol/L in the HBV-infected group, 1.29 ± 0.23 mmol/L in the control group) and APOA (1.29 ± 0.35 mmol/L, 1.36 ± 0.21 mmol/L, respectively) concentrations were significantly lower in the HBV-infected group than in the control group (p < 0.05). As the disease progressed, the blood lipid and lipoprotein values were significantly lower in the cirrhosis group TC (3.26 ± 1.00 mmol/L), HDL cholesterol (0.77 ± 0.33 mmol/L), LDL cholesterol (2.09 ± 0.62 mmol/L), and APOB (0.57 ± 0.18 mmol/L) compared with the control group, the carrier group, and the chronic hepatitis B group (p < 0.05). The serum HBV DNA level was significantly, positively correlated with the blood HDL concentration (carrier group R = 0.340, p = 0.02; chronic hepatitis B group R = 0.329, p = 0.014). There was no correlation between the HBV DNA and lipid levels in patients with cirrhosis.

Serum lipid metabolic derangement was associated with disease progression during chronic HBV infection. Liver function and blood lipid levels were significantly lower in patients with hepatitis B-related cirrhosis.