A meta-analysis of liver lesions in hepatitis B patients undergoing anti-tuberculosis therapy

Abstract

To evaluate the effect of different immune status on the incidence of hepatic lesions in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection undergoing anti-tuberculosis therapy. The PubMed (1966-2013), Embase (1966-2013), Wanfang (1998-2013), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI; 1997-2013), and Chinese Biomedical (CBMdisc; 1860-2013) literature databases were searched for case-control studies of hepatic lesions in patients undergoing anti-tuberculosis therapy with or without concomitant HBV infection. The HBV patients were divided into subgroups according to hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positivity or negativity, all members of the control group were HBsAg⁻. The data from all 7 studies included in the meta-analysis were extracted and analysed using RevMan5.2 soft-ware. Patients with HBV infection who were undergoing anti-tuberculosis therapy had a higher risk factor than the control patients (OR =5.81, 95% CI =[4.26, 7.39]). The HBV patients with HBeAg positivity who were undergoing anti-tuberculosis therapy had a high risk factor than the HBV patients with HBeAg negativity (OR =2.56, 95% CI=[1.90, 3.44]). HBV infection is a risk factor for hepatic lesions when undergoing anti-tuberculosis therapy, and HBeAg-positive status may put a patient at higher risk.