Table 1.

Clinical characteristics of the patients with chronic HBV infection and healthy controls.

	Patients	HC	p-value
Subjects, n	77	20	/
Gender, males/females	45/32	10/10	0.499
Age, y	35(18-71)	27(18-52)	0.053
ALT, IU/L	75(15-942)	15(7-31)	<0.001
AST, IU/L	51(13-915)	14.5(7-34)	<0.001
HBV DNA, log10 IU/mL	6.72(0-8.38)	NA	/
HBsAg, log10 IU/mL	3.50(1.30-4.72)	NA	/
HBeAg, positive/negative, n	39/38	0/20	<0.001
ALT, elevated/normal, n	40/37	0/20	<0.001

Abbreviations. ALT: alanine transaminase; AST: aspartate aminotransferase; HBeAg: hepatitis B e antigen; HBsAg: hepatitis B s antigen; HBV: hepatitis B virus; HC: healthy controls; NA: not applicable.

(a) Values are expressed as the median (minimum-maximum) for age, ALT, AST, and HBV DNA.

(b) HBV DNA<100 was treated as 0 log10 IU/ml.