J Gastroenterol Hepatol Endosc | Volume 4, Issue 1 | Research Article | Open Access
Servais Albert Fiacre Eloumou Bagnaka1,2*, Winnie Tatiana Bekolo Nga1,2, Gabin Kenfack3, Isabelle Dissongo2, Guy Roger Nsenga Djapa4, Agnes Malongue1, Christian Tzeuton5, Oudou Njoya3, Firmin Andoulo Ankouane3, Henry Namme Luma1,3 and Dominique Noah Noah2
1Internal Medecine Unit, Douala General Hospital, Cameroon
2Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences (FMPS), Cameroon
3Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of Yaounde, Cameroon
4Ebolowa Regional Hospital, Cameroon
5Capucines Medical Center of Douala, Cameroon
*Correspondance to: Servais Albert Fiacre Eloumou Bagnaka
Fulltext PDFBackground: Chronic Hepatitis B Viral (HBV) infection remains a public health problem worldwide. It accounts for complications such as hepatocellular carcinoma. The goal of this study was to evaluate the risk of the occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic hepatitis B infection in a highly endemic environment.
Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study, carried out at the Douala General hospital (DGH) during a period of 11 years. The risk evaluation was done using items of the Risk Evaluation of Viral Load And liver disease of Hepatitis B Virus (REVEAL-HBV) score and were classified as low, moderate and high risk of occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma. The Khi-2 test was used to compare different groups of patients with a p-value less than 0.05 considered significant.
Results: Two-hundred and five patients were enrolled, with a male predominance (62.4%). The mean age was 34.77 ± 9.79 years. The risk of occurrence of HCC was high in 1.9% of patients, and exclusively associated to men (p=0.001). Patients aged less than 30 mainly had a low risk which accounted for 76.6% of the population (p<0.001). A low viral load was associated with a low risk of occurrence of HCC (p<0.01).
Conclusion: The risk of occurrence of HCC is slow in the majority of patients in DGH followed-up for chronic hepatitis B infection. It is related to age, sex, liver enzymes, viral load and the presence of hepatitis B e-antigen. This risk can be easily assessed during outpatient’s consultations, and clinicians are encouraged to do so.
HBV; Reveal-HBV score; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Douala; Cameroon
Eloumou Bagnaka SAF, Bekolo Nga WT, Kenfack G, Dissongo I, Nsenga Djapa GR, Malongue A, et al. Random Evaluation of the Risk of Occurrence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Chronic Carriers of Hepatitis B Virus in a Highly Endemic Country using the REVEALHBV Score. J Gastroenterol Hepatol Endosc. 2019;4(1):1054.