Diagnostic significance of hepatitis B viral antigens in patients with glomerulonephritis-associated hepatitis B virus infection

Hepatitis B viral infection can lead to hepatitis B virus–associated glomerulonephritis, a clinically significant subtype of secondary nephritis. In the present study, we examined the presence of PreS1/S2 antigen in renal tissues by use of immunohistochemistry and investigated the use of PreS1/S2 and 2 HBV serum antigens, HBe-Ag and HBs-Ag, in the diagnosis. We assessed the presence of these 3 antigens in patients with confirmed hepatitis B virus–associated glomerulonephritis (n = 22) and patients without this disease (n = 19). Our results indicate that the combined use of PreS1/S2-Ag and serum HBe-Ag in the diagnosis of hepatitis B virus–associated glomerulonephritis had good positive predictive value (0.89), modest negative predictive value (0.77), and substantial agreement based on Cohen's kappa coefficient (κ = 0.660, P < 0.001). We suggest that our results be considered in the development of more definitive diagnostic criteria for hepatitis B virus–associated glomerulonephritis.