Table 1.

Classification of patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Characteristic	Chronic hepatitis B*	Inactive HBsAg carrier
HBsAg	Positive for >6 months	Positive for >6 months
Alanine aminotransferase	Intermittently or persistently raised (>2 times upper limit of normal)	Normal
Serum hepatitis B virus DNA level	>105 copies/ml†	<105 copies/ml
Liver biopsy (histological activity index)	≥4‡	≤3

^*No clinical or histological evidence of cirrhosis; this group is further subdivided into HBeAg positive chronic hepatitis B (HBeAg positive and anti-HBe negative) and HBeAg negative chronic hepatitis B (HBeAg negative and anti-HBe positive) forms.

^†Hepatitis B virus DNA levels measured using a quantitative method (for example, quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay) or testing positive with a method other than polymerase chain reaction (for example, hybridisation assay) with sensitivity in the range of 10⁵ copies/ml.

^‡Necro-inflammatory score.¹⁴