Characteristics of Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Patients Related Liver Cirrhosis in a Tertiary Care Referral Hospital, Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan

Background: Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) related to liver cirrhosis is an advanced liver fibrosis that is usually progressive, irreversible, and the only option for the treatment is liver transplantation in selected patients Objectives: to examine the demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of patients with the chronic HBV related to cirrhosis. Methods: The viral hepatitis clinic in Azadi Teaching Hospital is dealing with all viral hepatitis cases. All patients with liver cirrhosis caused by chronic HBV infection were studied. Demographic, clinical and laboratory information of the patients were retrieved by interviewing and from the case notes of September in 2014 until December in 2016. Child–Turcotte–Pugh (CTP) classification was used to evaluate the prognosis of liver cirrhosis. The results obtained were analyzed by entering the data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. A value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The total number of patients included in the study was 45. The mean age of the patients was 53.73 ± 14.23 years. Thirtysix cases were males and 9 were females. The evaluation of the 45 patients revealed a higher frequency of CTP-A in both male and female sexes. Cirrhotic patients classified as CTP-A (n=30) and B (n=12) were compared by demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics. Patients classified as CTP-B were significantly associated with older ages. The levels of hemoglobin, WBC, and platelet were lower, but prothrombin time was higher. There were also significant associations with higher total serum bilirubin (TSB), AST, and ALP levels; whereas, significant associations with the lower levels of albumin, and triglyceride was noted in Child’s B. The AST/ALT ratio of 1 or more was significantly associated with CTP-B. Conclusions: The cirrhotic patients with CTP-B were older, lower weighted, lower hemoglobin level, lower WBC count, lower platelet counts, increased prothrombin time, increased TSB level, decreased serum albumin level, decreased triglyceride level, increased AST level, AST/ALT ratio (≥1), and increased ALP level.