Clinical presentation and disease phases of chronic hepatitis B using conventional versus modified ALT criteria in Asian Americans.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The modified normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) value (i.e., males <30 and females <19 IU/L) is a better criteria associated with histological activity in chronic hepatitis B (CHB). This study was aimed to assess if the modified ALT criteria could be better associated with disease phases in a cohort of Asian Americans (AsAm) with CHB.
METHODS: This two-center retrospective study evaluated 198 non-treated AsAm with CHB and a mean follow-up of 21 months. Both conventional and modified ALT criteria were used to determine the differences and clinical value using modified ALT criteria in classifying CHB phases.
RESULTS: Among HBeAg (+) patients (29.3 %), HBV pre-core (PC) and basal core promoter (BCP) mutations were detected in 24.4 % and 31.3 %, respectively. Using baseline conventional ALT criteria, 97/153 (63.4 %) patients could be categorized into CHB phases 1 to 4, whereas 56/153 (36.6 %) were indeterminate. Using the modified ALT criteria, 43 (28.1 %) patients had phase changes of which 31/43 (72.1 %) were moved from phase 1 and indeterminate to phases 2 and 4, more active CHB phases. In 13/31 of these patients with liver biopsy, 6 (19.4 %) reported stage 2-4 fibrosis and 10 (32.3 %) reported grade 1-2 inflammation. Using modified ALT criteria to evaluate 48/153 patients with full data at baseline and the end of 1-year follow-up, we observed that 19/48 (39.6 %) changed their CHB phases; 5/48 (10.4 %) moved from phases 1 and 3 to phases 2 and 4; 2/48 (4.2 %) remained in the active phases; 10/48 (20.8 %) became indeterminate.
CONCLUSIONS: HBV PC and BCP mutations were detectable in 24.4 % and 31.3 % of HBeAg (+) AsAm patients, respectively. Compared with conventional ALT criteria, modified ALT criteria is more sensitive in identifying CHB patients in active phases.