When would a hepatitis antigen be considered as positive?

Question

Hello doctor,

Recently, a friend said he was hepatitis antigen reactive, whose titer was 37.46/34.29. His doctor suggested a confirmatory test. At what level would the antigen be assumed to be positive?

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Your friend is tested to be positive for hepatitis B in the pre-employment screening. It is very common to see an HBsAg (hepatitis B surface antigen) positive result in a screening. Hepatitis B infection remains asymptomatic for decades, silently causing damage to the liver cells leading to cirrhosis and carcinoma. It is a very infectious disease with various horizontal and vertical routes of spread.

We need to evaluate its stage after getting an HBsAg reactive result, whatever its values are. For that, HBeAg (hepatitis B e-antigen), anti HBe antibodies and HBV DNA (hepatitis B virus deoxyribonucleic acid), baseline serum LFTs (liver function tests), and abdomen ultrasonography are indicated to look at the stage of the disease and treat it accordingly. So coming to your question, the tests mentioned above are recommended in your friends' case.

You can revert to me for further queries.