Importance of HBV RNA in diagnosis and treatment in hepatitis B patients

Aim: Hepatitis B is an important health problem in our country as well as all over the world. Early diagnosis and treatment is important because it causes serious health problems, workforce losses and economic burden. Recently, new markers have been used.One of them is HBV RNA. In this study, it was aimed to measure the course of the disease, to measure the effectiveness of antiviral treatment and to detect reactivations early by measuring the HBV RNA levels of hepatitis patients. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted with 86 hepatitis patients who applied to Sakarya University Medical Faculty Hospital. The blood samples taken from the patients were separated from their serums and stored at -20°C until the time of the study. Nucleic acid isolation was performed in the collected patient samples using a commercial kit, and then HBV RNA was investigated by real-time PCR method. Results: As a result of our study, which we designed using the in house Real time PCR technique, 22 (25%) of the patients who were positive for HBsAg and HBV DNA using a commercial kit, were positive and 10 (12%) were negative; Of the patients with HBsAg positive and HBV DNA negative, 4 (5%) were positive and 28 (33%) were negative. In the HBsAg and HBV DNA negative group, 2 (2%) patients were positive and 20 (23%) were negative. Positive results were repeated. Our results, using the Qiagen Rotor gene program, the treeshold value was determined as 0.02 on average and calculated according to this value. Conclusion: Obtaining results close to the standard diagnostic tests in our study, which we conducted in two stages, and the positive determination of 6 patients from the HBV DNA negative group were evaluated as promising for the development of our method to be used in the diagnosis and treatment of Hepatitis B. Further studies are needed for a one-step design of our method for routine uses. Keywords: cccDNA, Hepatitis B, HBV RNA, real time PCR