Hepatitis Monthly
Volume 17, Issue 4, 2017

Clinical characteristics of chronic hepatitis B virus infection in immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa (Article) (Open Access)

Massoumi H.* , Buchheit K. , Gunturu S. , Thlick J.-E. , Gaglio P.
  • a New York Associates in Gastroenterology, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, United States
  • b MD Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, United States
  • c MD Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, United States
  • d MD Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, United States
  • e MD Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, United States

Abstract

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a significant, worldwide burden due to it’s high prevalence, and risk of complications, including cirrhosiand hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Current literature suggests that African patients with chronic hepatitis B are at higher risk for hepatocellulacarcinoma. The exact mechanism for the explanation for this observation is contentious and may be due to higher rates of chronicity, and/or exposure to hepatotoxins including aflatoxin. We sought to report the clinical characteristics of African born immigrants with chronic hepatitis referred to a liver clinic in New York City. A total of 111 patients were enrolled. 19 patients (17%) had cirrhosis, and 14 patients (13%) had HCC at initiapresentation. During the course of follow up, 13 patients (12%) died of complications of HBV, all of them related to HCC. Our case series revealed thaa significant proportion of these patients manifested advanced complications of HBV such as cirrhosis or HCC. © 2016, Kowsar Corp.

Author Keywords

Hepatoma Genotype E Hepatitis B Sub-Saharan Africans

Index Keywords

male chronicity human female major clinical study immigrant liver biopsy risk factor genotype follow up Africa south of the Sahara chronic hepatitis B Article genetic variability liver cirrhosis diagnostic imaging adult human tissue
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85026388915&doi=10.5812%2fhepatmon.41781&partnerID=40&md5=e62ae0298603d701afc0a4a74f38a79e
DOI: 10.5812/hepatmon.41781
ISSN: 1735143X
Cited by: 1
Original Language: English