Naïve hepatitis B e antigen-negative chronic hepatitis B patients are at risk of carotid atherosclerosis: A prospective study
Mar Riveiro‐Barciela, Cristina Marcos‐Fosch, Fernando Martínez‐Valle, F. Bronte, Olimpia Orozco, Isidro Sanz Pérez, Daniele Torres, María-Teresa Salcedo, Salvatore Petta, Rafael Esteban, Antonio Craxı̀, Marı́a Buti
Abstract
BACKGROUND: There is an increased risk of atherosclerosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C or human immunodeficiency virus, but there is scarce data on hepatitis B virus infection. The hypothesis of this study is that hepatitis B virus infection increases the risk of carotid plaques and subclinical atherosclerosis in naïve hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) negative subjects. AIM: To assess the rate of carotid plaques and subclinical atherosclerosis in naïve HBeAg negative subjects in comparison with a cohort of healthy controls. METHODS: or Fisher exact test. RESULTS: = 0.058) were more frequent among CHB than ICs. CONCLUSION: Untreated HBeAg-negative CHB is an independent risk factor for carotid plaques and subclinical atherosclerosis, while ICs present a similar risk to controls.