low serum hepatitis b surface antigen level predicts compensated cirrhosis caused by chronic hepatitis b in hbeag positive patients in east china

conclusions in hbeag positive chb patients, low serum hbsag level is a useful predictor of compensated cirrhosis. objectives the aim of our study was to evaluate serum hbsag level as a biomarker for compensated cirrhosis in hepatitis b e antigen (hbeag) positive chb patients. patients and methods two-hundred and one hbeag-positive chinese chb patients with or without cirrhosis were enrolled in this retrospective study. cirrhosis was diagnosed based on liver biopsy. furthermore, patients with decompensated cirrhosis were excluded. a statistical analysis was performed regarding the association between serum hbsag level and compensated cirrhosis. results patients with compensated cirrhosis had a significantly lower mean serum hbsag level compared to those without cirrhosis (3.27 log10 iu/ml vs 4.17 log10 iu/ml, p < 0.001). furthermore, examining the correlation with compensated cirrhosis revealed that lower level of serum hbsag was a significant factor in multivariate analysis. the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of serum hbsag was 0.856 for compensated cirrhosis. a positive predictive value of 66.2% and negative predictive value of 90.7% were obtained with a cut-off value of < 3.60 log10 iu/ml (4000 iu/ml) of serum hbsag. moreover, the rate of compensated cirrhosis increased to 75.0% after combining with apri > 2. backgrounds serum hepatitis b surface antigen (hbsag) levels are associated with fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis b (chb) infection.