OBJECTIVETo study the pathological features of liver tissues from patients clinically diagnosed with mild chronic hepatitis B based on current guideline and emphasize the important significance of liver puncture and biopsy for these patients.

METHODSTotally 156 patients clinically diagnosed with mild chronic hepatitis B based on current guideline received liver puncture under the real-time Doppler ultrasonographic guiding. Pathological diagnosis was made after microscopic examinations of the liver tissue specimens stained with hematoxylin-eosin (HE) and reticular fiber staining. The differences between clinical and pathological diagnosis for these patients were analyzed.

RESULTSFinally, 105 (67.3%) patients were pathologically diagnosed with mild chronic hepatitis B; 28 (18.0%), 3 (1.9%) and 20 (12.8%) patients were pathologically diagnosed as moderate, severe chronic hepatitis B and cirrhosis, respectively. Forty-eight (30.8%) and 39 (25.0%) patients of non-mild chronic hepatitis B were found to have G3-4 inflammation and S3-4 fibrosis, respectively. Differences in serum alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, total bilirubin or albumin between mild and non-mild chronic hepatitis B based on pathological diagnosis were not statistically significant (t-test, P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSAccurate pathological diagnosis is helpful to guiding an antiviral therapy.