Hepatitis testing

Question 1

What are ground-glass hepatocytes?

What are they suggestive of?

Answer 1

• Ground-glass hepatocytes can be seen on light microscopy as hepatocytes with flat, hazy and uniformly dull appearing cytoplasms

*This is thought to be because of the presence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) inside the endoplasmic reticulum.

• They point towards a diagnosis of chronic hepatitis B infection and are not present in acute infection

Question 2

What does surface antigen (HbsAg) mean?

Answer 2

HbsAg (surface antigen) → active infection

Question 3

What does E antigen (HBeAg) mean?

Answer 3

HBeAg (E antigen) → marker for viral replication (high infectivity)

Question 4

What do core antibodies (HBcAb) mean?

Answer 4

HBcAb (core antibodies) → past or current infection

Question 5

What does surface antibody (HBsAb) mean?

Answer 5

Surface antibody (HBsAb) → vaccination or past or current infection

Question 6

What does Hepatitis B virus DNA (HBV DNA) mean?

Answer 6

HBV DNA → direct count of viral load