Acute exacerbations of chronic hepatitis B are rarely associated with superinfection of hepatitis B virus

Abstract

There are 7 genotypes of hepatitis B virus (HBV). Whether superinfection of HBV carriers with different HBV genotypes occurs remains unknown. We therefore determined the HBV genotype and association between superinfection and acute exacerbation of disease in a cohort of 244 patients with chronic HBV infection who had elevated serum aminotransferase levels for at least 1 year. Within this group, 103 patients experienced acute exacerbation with an annual incidence of 13%, and 20 of the 103 patients had IgM antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (IgM anti-HBc). These 20 patients had a higher prevalence of genotype C infection (65%) than the remaining 83 anti-core IgM-negative patients (40%) who also had acute exacerbations (P