hepatitis b

[sherry390]

i  am now 33yrs old female & was diagnosed hbs ag +ve 10yrs back, was doing regular liver function test, ultra sound etc &were normal, recently i did my hbv dna test and the viral load was 2570 iu/ml, liver u/s is normal , sgot-18 iu/ml, sgpt- 19 iu/ml.  my doctor has asked to start entecavir .5mg. my mother died of hepatocellular carcinoma 2yrs back.i want to know whether i should start treatment.your suggestions would be agreat help to me.

[sherry390]

stefano,
thankyou verymuch. i had a confusion of starting antivirals as the alt & ast were normal, any way iam starting medication. what is bcp? my husband and children are vaccinated ,should they need any followup?

[stef2011]

since you have a family history of HCC it is strongly better to start antivirals, if you develop HCC you have chances of survive if hbvdna is und before and after HCC resection while if hbvdna is detactable HCC will develop again shortly after resection

do check if you have BCP and precore mutations that are now 100% correlated with HCC development

[cajim]

Your liver function is very normal and your HBVDNA is low.  Some people would just monitor quarterly rather than start antivirals which is a one way trip.  Do you have any symptoms?

[sherry390]

also  my hbeag is negative.