Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global health problem, and more than 350 million people are chronic carriers of the virus. The infection is associated with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations, ranging from acute or fulminant hepatitis to various forms of chronic infection, including asymptomatic carrier, chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Although serological and genotypic classifications of HBV have been well documented, sensitive detection and quantification of HBV genomic DNA seems to constitute a promising method to monitor HBV infections and the efficacy of antiviral treatment4. The routine HBV serology includes tests for detecting HBV surface antigen (HbsAg), HBV envelope-antigen (HbeAg) or surface-antibody (anti-Hbs), envelop-antibody (anti-Hbe) and HBV core antibodies (anti-HbcIgG and anti-HbcIgM).

In this study we evaluate primarily the sensitivity and suitability of our in house Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect HBV-DNA in Patients' serum with different immunological and enzymatic status. 120 serum samples -included in this study- were collected from deferent private laboratories in Amman, Jordan through December, 2005 to April, 2006. All samples were tested for HBV by serological and molecular methods.

We used the commercial kit SURASE B-96 (TMB) (General Biological Corp. Taiwan), as a general biological Enzyme Immunoassay (EIA) for the qualitative test of HbsAg and HbeAg status. As a result 88 samples were diagnosed as HbsAg (+), 20 samples HbsAg-HbeAg (+), and 12 samples were HbsAg (-).