Prevalence of occult hepatitis B virus infection in haemodialysis patients from central Greece

Table 3 Epidemiological, biochemical and serological markers of HBV, HCV and HEV in 366 patients with ESRF according to HBV-DNA positivity (mean ± SD)

	HBV-DNA		P value
	Positive (n = 15)	Negative (n = 351)
Sex (M/F)	12/3	231/120	NS
Age (yr)	66 ± 13	60 ± 13	NS
Dialysis type (haemodialysis/peritoneal dialysis)	15/0	337/14	NS
History of hepatitis (yes/no)	0/15	51/300	NS
History of transfusions (yes/no)	4/11	125/226	NS
Number of blood units	3.5 ± 1.9	4.9 ± 5.2	NS
Duration of erythropoietin treatment (mo)	30 ± 27	46 ± 36	NS
AST (UNL 40 U/L)	17 ± 8	22 ± 19	NS
ALT (UNL 40 U/L)	18 ± 11	26 ± 20	NS
HBsAg (pos/neg)	12/3	8/343	< 0.001
Anti-HBc (pos/neg)	13/2	162/189	0.003
Anti-HBs (pos/neg)	2/13	243/108	< 0.001
HBeAg (pos/neg)	1/14	1/350	NS
Anti-HBe (pos/neg)	11/4	62/289	< 0.001
Anti-HCV (pos/neg)	0/15	88/263	0.03
Anti-HEV (pos/neg)	1/14	14/337	NS

NS: Not significant; UNL: Upper normal limit.