Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 14, 2016; 22(42): 9427-9436
Published online Nov 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i42.9427
Occult hepatitis B virus infection is not associated with disease progression of chronic hepatitis C virus infection
Junhyeon Cho, Sang Soo Lee, Yun Suk Choi, Yejoo Jeon, Jung Wha Chung, Joo Yeong Baeg, Won Keun Si, Eun Sun Jang, Jin-Wook Kim, Sook-Hyang Jeong
Junhyeon Cho, Yun Suk Choi, Yejoo Jeon, Jung Wha Chung, Joo Yeong Baeg, Won Keun Si, Eun Sun Jang, Jin-Wook Kim, Sook-Hyang Jeong, Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Gyeonggi-do 463-707, South Korea
Sang Soo Lee, Department of Internal Medicine, Gyeongsang National University Changwon Hospital, Gyeongsang National University College of Medicine, Gyeonggi-do 463-707, South Korea
Author contributions: Cho JH, Lee SS and Jeong SH designed the study; Jang ES, Kim JW and Jeong SH enrolled the patients; Cho JH, Lee SS, Choi YS, Jeon Y, Kim JW, Baeg JY and Si WK collected the data; Cho JH, Lee SS and Jeong SH analyzed and interpreted the data; all authors read and approved the final manuscript; Cho JH and Lee SS contributed equally to this manuscript.
Supported by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, No. 4800-4859-304; and the Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, No. 02-2014-026.
Institutional review board statement: The project was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained prior to enrollment of subjects.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: The collected data were entered into the electronic case report form at the Korean HCV cohort study group homepage (http://www.hcvcohort.or.kr/).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Sook-Hyang Jeong, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, 82 Gumiro 173, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do 463-707, South Korea. jsh@snubh.org
Telephone: +82-31-7877029 Fax: +82-31-7874052
Received: June 30, 2016
Peer-review started: July 1, 2016
First decision: August 8, 2016
Revised: August 18, 2016
Accepted: September 6, 2016
Article in press: September 6, 2016
Published online: November 14, 2016
Processing time: 135 Days and 0.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Whether occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection affects the outcomes of chronic hepatitis C virus infection is controversial. This prospective observational study aimed to clarify the association between occult HBV infection and liver disease progression defined as development of liver cirrhosis, worsening of Child-Pugh class, hepatocellular carcinoma or mortality in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection in South Korea.