Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Mar 27, 2015; 7(3): 289-303
Published online Mar 27, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i3.289
Genotypes and viral variants in chronic hepatitis B: A review of epidemiology and clinical relevance
Catherine MN Croagh, Paul V Desmond, Sally J Bell
Catherine MN Croagh, Paul V Desmond, Sally J Bell, Department of Gastroenterology, St Vincent’s Hospital, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065, Australia
Author contributions: Croagh CMN wrote the paper; Desmond PV and Bell SJ reviewed and added revisions to the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: None.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Catherine MN Croagh, Department of Gastroenterology, St Vincent’s Hospital, Level 4, Daly Wing, 35 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065, Australia. catherine.croagh@svha.org.au
Telephone: +61-3-92883580 Fax:+61-3-92883590
Received: September 15, 2014
Peer-review started: September 20, 2014
First decision: November 14, 2014
Revised: December 4, 2014
Accepted: December 29, 2014
Article in press: December 29, 2014
Published online: March 27, 2015
Processing time: 197 Days and 4.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is a major global cause of liver related morbidity and mortality. Genotypes of the Hepatitis B virus have distinct geographical distributions and are known to influence a number of clinical features of disease and response to treatment. Certain well recognised viral mutations are also known to influence clinical risk of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma but in addition may have implications for vaccination programs and screening of blood for donation. This review examines the current state of knowledge about genotype and viral variants of CHB and their utility in the management of this disease.