Investigating the utility of qHBsAg in the management of CHB
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Optimising the management of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in children and young adults: A cohort study to evaluate the use of quantitative Hepatitis B surface Antigen as a marker to risk stratify patients.
IRAS ID
207373
Contact name
Patrick Kennedy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Barts Health NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) affects >300 million people worldwide and can cause liver failure and liver cancer. In the UK, CHB is a disease of the major cities, particularly London and Birmingham, reflecting recent migration patterns. The majority of those who develop CHB are infected with the virus at birth or in early childhood. Despite this, CHB is poorly understood and poorly managed in children and young people (CYP).
CHB has many disease stages, but safely identifying these stages/phases of the disease is difficult particularly in CYP; disease can be mild with virtually no progression; conversely disease may lead to the
development of liver scarring which ultimately leads to liver failure or liver cancer. Currently used clinical tests are not accurate in defining disease phase and our recent work has demonstrated the limitations of
these clinical stages/phases in CHB. This means current treatment and management decisions in CHB may be unsound. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that the addition of a simple blood test; quantitative Hepatitis B surface antigen (qHBsAg); to currently used laboratory tests, can more accurately define the disease and its various stages and predict in whom the disease will cause more harm. We will combine qHBsAg with other laboratory tests to identify patients with little or no disease, where therapy is not needed, allowing us to reduce the number of hospital visits. Conversely, qHBsAg levels can also identify those
at risk of more severe disease; so we plan to use this test in the real-life setting to improve patient care and the patient experience. We have considered the opinions of patients/parents when planning this research and their wish for safe but less frequent hospital visits. The combination of qHBsAg with the standard laboratory tests will improve patient management and at the same time reduce NHS costs.REC name
N/A
REC reference
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