The following is a summary of “A holistic evaluation of patients with chronic Hepatitis D virus (HDV) infection enrolled in the Italian PITER-B and delta cohort,” published in the September  2024 issue of Infectious Disease by Kondili et al.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to characterize the epidemiological and comorbidities profiles of patients with chronic Hepatitis D (CHD) followed in clinical practice in Italy and to explore their interferon (IFN) eligibility.

They examined patients with Hepatitis B antigen (HBsAg) -positive from 59 centers from 2019-2023, and multivariable analysis was performed using a logistic regression model.

The results showed that from 5,492 patients with HBsAg-positive enrolled, 4,152 (75.6%) were screened for HDV, and 422 (10.2%) were anti-HDV positive. On comparing patients with HBsAg mono-infected, patients with anti-HDV positive were younger, non-Italians, with a history of drug use, elevated alanine transaminase (ALT), cirrhosis, or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), while comparison with Italians, anti-HDV positive non-Italians were younger (42.2% age ≤ 40 years vs. 2.1%; P<0.001), more often females (males 43.0% vs. 68.6%; P<0.001), with less frequent cirrhosis and HCC and HDV-RNA was detected in 63.2% of patients with anti-HDV-positive, who were more likely to have elevated ALT, cirrhosis, and HCC. Extrahepatic comorbidities were present in 47.4% of patients with anti-HDV positivity and could affect IFN-containing therapy eligibility in at least 53% of patients in care.

They concluded that CHD affects young, foreign-born patients and older Italians, of whom two-thirds had cirrhosis or HCC, while comorbidities were frequent in both Italians and non-Italians and impacted eligibility for IFN.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971224001863