Precore/Core promoter variants to predict significant fibrosis in both HBeAg positive and negative chronic hepatitis B

Background & Aims Assessing fibrosis is essential in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). The objective was to investigate the relationship between fibrosis, host and viral factors to identify non‐invasive markers of significant fibrosis in a large cohort of unselected, well‐characterized, treatment‐naïve CHB patients. Methods Three hundred and seventy‐seven HBsAg‐positive patients (97 HBeAg‐positive and 280 HBeAg‐negative, genotypes A to E) who had liver biopsy were consecutively included. Host and viral factors (ALT, HBsAg and HBV‐DNA levels, HBV genotype and precore (PC)/basal core promoter (BCP) variants) were determined on the day of the biopsy. Fibrosis stage was assessed using METAVIR score. Results Thirty‐nine percent of the patients had significant fibrosis (METAVIR F ≥ 2). On univariate analysis, the stages of fibrosis F ≥ 2 were associated with older age (P