Comparison of hepatitis B viral loads and viral antigen levels in child-bearing age women with and without pregnancy

Table 4 Virological characteristics in HBeAg-negative carrier women in 487 pregnant women and women with different pregnant histories

	Nullipara (n = 104)	Pregnancy (n = 142)	7–12 months postpartum (n = 110)	2–5 years postpartum (n = 131)	p
Age (year)	25.0(22.0–30.0)	25.0 (22.8–30.3)	27.0 (23.7–31.2)^a	29.5 (24.3–32.3)^{a, b}	< 0.05
HBV DNA, log IU/ml (min-max)	2.3 (1.4–6.6)	2.6 (1.6–6.7)	2.5 (1.5–7.0)	2.8 (1.4–6.0)	0.085
HBsAg, log IU/ml (min-max)	3.1 (0.9–4.8)	3.3 (0.9–4.2)	3.3 (1.0–4.3)	3.0 (1.3–4.2)	0.06
Genotype^c
B (%)	41 (51.3)	46 (33.6)^d	52 (49.5)^e	81 (64.8)	< 0.001
C (%)	39 (48.7)	91 (66.4)^d	53 (50.5)^e	44 (35.2)	< 0.001

HBeAg hepatitis B e antigen, HBsAg hepatitis B surface antigen, HBV hepatitis B virus
^ap < 0.05 compared with the age of nulliparas and pregnant women
^bp < 0.05 compared with the age of puerperant women, 7–12 months postpartum
^cThe HBV genotype was not determined in 37 women because HBV DNA level was too low to be detected, including 23 nulliparas, 4 pregnant women, 5 puerperants 7–12 months postpartum and 5 puerperants 2–5 years postpartum. Additionally, there were one woman infected with genotype D and another woman infected with genotype G. Since the numbers for genotypes D and G were too low to be meaningfully compared, we did not include these three women in the table
^dp = 0.010, 0.012, and < 0.001 compared with the frequencies of genotypes B and C in nullipara group, puerperant 7–12 months postpartum and puerperant 2–5 years postpartum respectively
^ep = 0.019 compared with the frequencies of genotypes B and C in puerperant 2–5 years postpartum. The differences between any other groups had no statistical significance (all p > 0.05)

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