[High rate of hepatitis B virus DNA positivity in anti-HBc only-positive patients].

In hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections, detection of only anti-HBc in the absence of HBsAg and anti-HBs is known as 'anti-HBc only' situation. In this study we investigated the rate of HBV-DNA positivity in anti-HBc only-positive 45 patients (29 male, 16 female; mean age: 39.2 +/- 12.3 years) who were followed in the outpatient clinics of a University Hospital in Düzce (located at northern west part of Turkey). HBV markers were investigated by 3rd generation ELISA (MEIA Axsym-Abbott), and HBV-DNA were searched by real-time PCR [extraction: Minielute (Qiagen, Germany); PCR kits: Florion HBV (lontek, Turkey); detection: i-cycler IQ5 (BioRad, USA)] methods. As a result, 24.4% (11/45) of the patients were found HBV-DNA positive (> 10(3) copies/ml). There was no statistically significant difference of HBV-DNA positivity rates between males (9/29; 31%) and females (2/16; 12.5%), (p= 0.15). It was concluded that there may be a serious risk of HBV transmission from anti-HBc only-positive patients since the rate of HBV-DNA positivity was found high in our study. Thus HBV-DNA screening should be performed in 'anti-HBc only' patient groups.