Evidence map›Paper›PMID 21809355›Full record

ArticleHepatology (Baltimore, Md.)2011

Occult hepatitis B infection and HBV replicative activity in patients with cryptogenic cause of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Danny Ka Ho Wong, Fung Yu Huang, Ching Lung Lai, Ronnie Tung Ping Poon, Wai Kay Seto, James Fung, Ivan Fan Ngai Hung, Man Fung Yuen

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.), 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
73citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
10.8field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

73 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 155 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Guideline
  2. Pooled it
  3. Identification ofFrontiers in immunology · 2018
    Trial
  4. Occult hepatitis B virus infection.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2026
    Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Resolved HBV Infection Is Not Associated With Liver-Related Outcomes in Survival Analysis of Caucasians After HCV Cure.Liver international : official journal of the International Association for the Study of the Liver · 2026
    Article
  8. Review
  9. Review
  10. Review
  11. Review
  12. Review
  13. Article
  14. Review
  15. Review
  16. Article
  17. Review
  18. Review
  19. Review
  20. Occult hepatitis B virus infection in hepatitis C virus negative chronic liver diseases.Liver international : official journal of the International Association for the Study of the Liver · 2022
    Review

13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.

Danny Ka Ho WongDepartment of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Fung Yu Huang
Ching Lung Lai
Ronnie Tung Ping Poon
Wai Kay Seto
James Fung
Ivan Fan Ngai Hung
Man Fung Yuen
Queen Mary Hospital · CNUniversity of Hong Kong · HK

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

unlabelledWe aimed to investigate the incidence of occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) in patients with "cryptogenic" hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to study the HBV replicative activity in these patients. Tumorous and adjacent nontumorous liver tissues were obtained from 33 cryptogenic HCC patients and 28 HCC patients with identifiable causes (13 with chronic hepatitis B [CHB], six with chronic hepatitis C, and nine alcohol-related). OBI was identified by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Intrahepatic HBV DNA, covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), and pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) were quantified by real-time PCR and reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR), respectively. OBI was identified in 24 (73%) cryptogenic HCC patients, one (17%) HCC patient with HCV, and five (56%) patients with alcohol-related HCC. In HCC patients with OBI, HBV DNA were detected in ≥2 HBV genomic regions more often in nontumorous tissues than in tumorous tissues (90% versus 57%, respectively; P = 0.007). Cryptogenic HCC patients with OBI had lower intrahepatic total HBV DNA levels than HCC patients with CHB (median: 0.010 versus 3.19 copies/cell, respectively; P < 0.0001). Only six (26%) cryptogenic HCC patients with OBI had detectable cccDNA (median: <0.0002 copies/cell), which was significantly lower than that of the CHB patients (median: 0.005 copies/cell; P < 0.0001). HBV pgRNA were detectable in 12 (52%) cryptogenic HCC patients with OBI (median: 0.0001 copies/cell), which was significantly lower than that of the CHB patients (median: 2.90 copies/cell; P < 0.001).

conclusion73% of patients with apparently unidentifiable causes for HCC were HBV-related. The detection rate was higher in nontumorous tissues than tumorous tissues. The low intrahepatic HBV DNA and pgRNA levels indicated that persistent viral replication and possibly HBV integration are the likely causes of HCC in OBI patients.

Indexed as

Virus ReplicationAdultAgedCarcinoma, HepatocellularDNA, ViralFemaleHepatitis B, ChronicHepatitis B virusHumansLiverLiver NeoplasmsMaleMiddle AgedRNA, ViralDNA, ViralRNA, Viral

Identifiers

PMID21809355
OpenAlexW2154679932

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.