@article{3117132,
    title = "Serological and virological profile of chronic HBV infected women at
reproductive age in Greece - A two-year single center study",
    author = "Elefsiniotis, Loannis S. and Glynou, Irene and Brokalaki, Hero and and Magaziotou, Loanna and Pantazis, Konstantinos D. and Fotiou, Aikaterini and and Liosis, George and Kada, Helen and Saroglou, George",
    journal = "European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology",
    year = "2007",
    volume = "132",
    number = "2",
    pages = "200-203",
    publisher = "Elsevier",
    doi = "10.1016/j.ejogrb.2006.08.015",
    keywords = "hepatitis B; reproductive age; vertical transmission; HBeAg; HBV-DNA",
    abstract = "Objective: Seroprevalence of HBsAg in 26,746 women at reproductive age
in Greece and evaluation of HBeAg/anti-HBe serological status as well as
serum HBV-DNA levels in a subgroup of HBsAg(+) women at labor.
Study design: Serological markers were detected using enzyme
immunoassays. Serum HBV-DNA was calculated using a sensitive
quantitative PCR assay, with a lower limit of quantification of 200
copies/ml.
Results: Overall, 1.53% of women were HBsAg(+) and the majority of them
(64.96%) were Albanian. Among Albanian women the mean prevalence of
HBsAg was 4.9%, 5.57% among Asian women, and 1.29% among women from
Eastern European countries. The prevalence of HBsAg among African
(0.29%) and Greek women (0.57%) was very low and significantly lower
in comparison with the mean value of the studied population. Only 2.67%
of HBsAg(+) women were HBeAg(+). Of a subgroup of women in labor with
available serum samples 28.6% had undetectable levels of viremia (<200
copies/ml) and 15.9% had extremely low levels of viral replication
(<400 copies/ml). Only 12.7% of pregnant women evaluated at labor
exhibited extremely high serum HBV-DNA levels (>10,000,000 copies/ml)
whereas 42.8% of them exhibited HBV-DNA levels between 1500 and 40,000
copies/ml.
Conclusions: The overall prevalence of HBsAg is relatively low among
women at reproductive age in Greece but is higher among specific ethnic
populations (Asian, Albanian). The HBeAg(-)/antiHBe(+) serological
status is a finding observed in the vast majority of HBsAg(+) women of
our study population, and a significant percentage of them
(approximately 44.5%) exhibit extremely low or even undetectable levels
of viral replication at labor, suggesting possibly that only a
proportion of HBsAg(+) women in Greece exhibit an extremely high risk of
vertical transmission of the infection. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
All rights reserved."
}