Role of occult hepatitis B virus infection in chronic hepatitis C

Table 1 The studies evaluating the role of anti-HBc in the development of cirrhosis in HBsAg-negative patients with chronic hepatitis C

First author, year	No. of patients	Country	Type of study	Cirrhosis, positive/tested, n/n (%)		P value
				HBcAb+	HBcAb-
Verbaan 1998[63]	99	Sweden	Cross-sectional	10/44 (22.7)	10/55 (18.2)	NS
De Maria 2000[37]	285	United States	Cross-sectional	29/90 (32.2)	41/195 (21.0)	< 0.05
Sagnelli 2000[24]	174	Italy	Case-control	9/76 (11.8)	6/98 (6.1)	< 0.005
Giannini 2003[38]	119	Italy	Cross-sectional	20/48 (41.6)	15/71 (21.0)	0.020
Dinis-Ribeiro 2005[59]	129	Portugal	Cross-sectional	14/30 (46.6)	32/99 (32.3)	HR:1.35 (1.01-2.69)1
Helmy 2006[64]	169	Saudi Arabia	Cross-sectional	14/85 (16.5)	45/84 (53.6)	0.0001
Laguno 2008[65]	238	Spain	Cross-sectional	78/142 (55)2	49/96 (51)2	0.720
Carvalho-Filho 2009[60]	111	Brazil	Cross-sectional	24/31 (77.4)3	40/80 (50.0)3	0.017
El-Sherif 2009[61]	100	Egypt	Cross-sectional	68/71 (95.8)	23/29 (79.3)	0.009
Levast 2010[66]	140	France	Cross-sectional	5/45 (11.1)	16/95 (16.8)	NS
Coppola 2014[62]	222	Italy	Cross-sectional	21/77 (27.3)	12/145 (8.3)	< 0.009

¹Hazard ratio for progression to cirrhosis in HBsAb/HBcAb⁺ patients;

²Advanced fibrosis (Scheuer score > 2);

³Advanced fibrosis (Metavir score F2-F4). NS: Not significant.