Fibrosis among Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infected Patients,

North-Western Nigeria Experience.

Musa Y1, Yakubu A4, Maiyaki AS4, Yusuf I3, Samaila AA2, Borodo MM2
1Department of Internal Medicine, Federal Medical Centre Katsina, Nigeria.
2Department of Internal Medicine, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano Nigeria.
3: Department of Histopathology, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano Nigeria.
4: Department of Internal Medicine, Usman Danfodio University Teaching Hospital,
Sokoto Nigeria.
Correspondence: yusuf.musa@npmcn.edu.ng
Background: Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) virus infection is a global health problem with
about 2 billion persons been infected in their life time worldwide. It affects more than
257 million individual globally. It results to variety of serious complications ranging
from fulminant hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Liver fibrosis is
a common complication of chronic hepatitis B virus infection. With limited data on
pattern of fibrosis in our setting, we want to evaluate the fibrosis pattern of CHB patients
in our locality.
Methodology: It was a cross-sectional study in which 68 patients with chronic hepatitis
B virus infection were consecutively recruited within a period of 7 months. After a
focused clinical history and physical examination, complete blood count, liver enzymes,
serum proteins, Prothrombin time and International Normalized Ratio (INR) were
assayed. Liver biopsy was done in all eligible consented subjects without
contraindications. The histological findings and results of laboratory investigations were
recorded and analysed accordingly.
Results: The mean age of study subjects was 32.43±10.50 years with male: female ratio
of 2:1. More than 80% of the patient were HBeAg negative with evidence of antibody to
the HBe. Out of 68 patients biopsied, 42 (61.7%) had histological evidence of
necroinflammation of which 22% had significant inflammation, while 35 (56.5%) had
evidence of fibrosis among which 46.5% had significant fibrosis.
Conclusion: More than half of the patients CHB patients examined had evidence of
fibrosis and necroinflammation.