Spontaneous preterm birth in women with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Elefsiniotis, Ioannis; Tsoumakas, Konstantinos; Vezali, Elena; Glynou, Irene; Drakoulis, Nikolaos; Saroglou, George

doi:10.1016/j.ijgo.2010.04.020

« Previous Next »International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics
Volume 110, Issue 3 , Pages 241-244, September 2010

Spontaneous preterm birth in women with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Ioannis Elefsiniotis
- University Department of Internal Medicine-Hepatology Unit, “Elena Venizelou” Hospital, Athens, Greece
- Corresponding author. Carchidonos 9, A. Glyfada, 16562, Athens, Greece. Tel.: +30 210 9630312; fax: +30 210 6427379.
Konstantinos Tsoumakas
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Athens, Athens
Elena Vezali
- University Department of Internal Medicine-Hepatology Unit, “Elena Venizelou” Hospital, Athens, Greece
Irene Glynou
- Department of Microbiology, “Elena Venizelou” Hospital, Athens
Nikolaos Drakoulis
- Department of Pharmacy, University of Athens and Research Diagnostics Laboratories, Athens
George Saroglou
- University Department of Internal Medicine-Hepatology Unit, “Elena Venizelou” Hospital, Athens, Greece

Received 2 February 2010; received in revised form 8 April 2010; accepted 4 May 2010. published online 04 June 2010.

Abstract

Objective

To determine whether chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, as evidenced by serum levels of HBsAg and HBV DNA, is a risk factor for spontaneous preterm birth (SPB).

Method

The prevalence of HBV infection and the SPB rate were prospectively investigated among 1826 pregnant women, 30.89% Albanian and the remainder of other European origins.

Results

Overall, 70 (3.8%) of the women were chronically infected with HBV. HBsAg status was strongly linked to SPB, which incurred to 5 (7.3%) of 64 women with circulating HBsAg compared with 28 (1.6%) of 1703 without current HBV infection (odds ratio, 5.2; P=0.007). SPB, however, was linked neither to HBsAg levels, nor to HBV DNA levels, nor to the presence or absence of viremia.

Conclusion

Pregnant women were found to be at higher risk for SPB if they had circulating HBsAg, and the risk did not seem to be influenced by the levels of HBsAg or HBV DNA.

Keywords: Hepatitis B virus, HBV DNA, Hepatitis B surface antigen, Pregnancy, Preterm birth