CORRELATION BETWEEN HBSAG QUANTITATIVE ASSAY RESULTS AND HBV-DNA LEVELS IN CHRONIC HEPATITIS B PATIENTS: A SINGLE-CENTER EXPERIENCE

Zhivka Stoykova; Tsvetelina Kostadinova; Teodora Katrandzhieva; Irina Ivanova; Tatina Todorova

doi:10.5114/hpc.2025.151889

eISSN: 2354-0265
ISSN: 2353-6942

Health Problems of Civilization Physical activity: diseases and issues recognized by the WHO

Current issue Archive Online first About the journal Editorial board Reviewers Abstracting and indexing Contact Instructions for authors Publication charge Ethical standards and procedures

Editorial System

Submit your Manuscript

Editorial Policies

Sarajevo Declaration on Integrity and Visibility of Scholarly Publications

Open access

Send email

Copy url:

abstract:

Original paper

CORRELATION BETWEEN HBSAG QUANTITATIVE ASSAY RESULTS AND HBV-DNA LEVELS IN CHRONIC HEPATITIS B PATIENTS: A SINGLE-CENTER EXPERIENCE

Zhivka Stoykova

¹

,

Tsvetelina Kostadinova

^{2, 3}

,

Teodora Katrandzhieva

^{1, 2}

,

Irina Ivanova

^{2, 4}

,

Tatina Todorova

^{1, 2}

Department of Microbiology and Virology, Medical University of Varna, Bulgaria
University Hospital ”St. Marina”, Varna, Bulgaria
Medical College, Medical University of Varna, Bulgaria
Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Varna, Bulgaria

Health Problems of Civilization

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/hpc.2025.151889

Online publish date: 2025/06/10

View full text Get citation

PlumX metrics:

Background
Quantifying hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA is the main laboratory test for diagnosis and monitoring of patients with chronic HBV infection (CHB). Such assays are molecular-based and often expensive for health systems worldwide. Measure of HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) levels by automated chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA) has been proposed as a surrogate and cost-effective marker that may simplify HBV management. In this study, we determined whether quantitative HBsAg levels correlate with HBV-DNA levels in a cohort of CHB patients.

Material and methods
This cross-sectional study was performed in the Laboratory of Virology, ‘‘St. Marina’’ University Hospital, Varna, Bulgaria, from January 2022 to December 2024. In total, 315 serum samples from CHB patients were obtained, and HBsAg, HBV-DNA and HBV early antigen (HBeAg)/anti-HBe levels were measured.

Results
The Spearman’s rank correlation between the HBsAg and HBV-DNA in the entire sample was 0.51 with a p-value <0.001. In the HBeAg-negative patients, the correlation coefficient was 0.49, and in HBeAg-positive – 0.49 (both p-values <0.001).

Conclusions
HBsAg levels, measured by chemiluminescence assay, moderately correlated with HBV-DNA levels in CHB patients from Varna, Bulgaria. The correlation’s strength was not related to the individuals’ HBeAg status.

keywords:

CORRELATION BETWEEN HBSAG QUANTITATIVE ASSAY RESULTS AND HBV-DNA LEVELS IN CHRONIC HEPATITIS B PATIENTS: A SINGLE-CENTER EXPERIENCE

Zhivka Stoykova 1 , Tsvetelina Kostadinova 2, 3 , Teodora Katrandzhieva 1, 2 , Irina Ivanova 2, 4 , Tatina Todorova 1, 2

real-time polymerase chain reaction, hepatitis B surface antigen, viral load, immunoassay, hepatitis B

Zhivka Stoykova

¹

,

Tsvetelina Kostadinova

^{2, 3}

,

Teodora Katrandzhieva

^{1, 2}

,

Irina Ivanova

^{2, 4}

,

Tatina Todorova

^{1, 2}