To evaluate the efficacy of serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) and hepatitis B virus DNA (HBV DNA) in predicting the pathological grading and staging of liver in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB).

Total of 211 patients with CHB, including 125 cases with HBeAg-positive and 86 cases with HBeAg-negative, were enrolled. The levels of serum HBsAg, HBcrAg and HBV DNA were measured by chemiluminescence microparticle immunoassay, chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay and real time fluorescent quantitative PCR, respectively.

In HBeAg-positive patients, all the serum HBsAg, HBcrAg and HBV DNA were significantly negatively correlated to the pathological grading and staging of liver (P all < 0.05); in HBeAg-negative patients, both serum HBcrAg and HBV DNA were significantly positively correlated to the pathological grading and staging of liver (P all < 0.01). Bayes stepwise discriminant analyses showed that, in HBeAg-positive patients, only serum HBsAg conformed to the entry standard of independent variable of the equation (F > 3.84) discriminating different pathological grading and staging of liver, and the concordance rates of the Fisher discriminant functions to predict pathological grading G1, G3 and staging S1, S4 were 62.7%, 58.8% and 63.8%, 69.6%, respectively; in HBeAg-negative patients, serum HBV DNA and HBcrAg respectively conformed to the entry standard of independent variable of the equation (F > 3.84) discriminating different pathological grading and staging of liver, and the concordance rates of the Fisher discriminant functions to predict pathological grading G1, G3 and staging S1, S4 were 79.3%, 66.7% and 71.7%, 75.0%, respectively.

Serum HBsAg in HBeAg-positive patients was significant to predict pathological grading G1, G3 and staging S1, S4 of liver; and serum HBV DNA and HBcrAg in HBeAg-negative patients respectively was significant to predict pathological grading G1, G3 and staging S1, S4 of liver.