Dear @Davidb,
Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your story. I hope you’ll find the support you need here. Your tests indicate that you have a chronic HBV infection, but a relatively low viral load in your blood, which is a good sign.
As Kinoti has mentioned, the fear will pass and many of us with Hep B live normal lives most of the time. And thank you Luis for extending your hand of support.
Thomas
Hi Thomas, thank you for your words.
Some people have told me how positive it is to have a low viral load, it is certainly good news, now what scares me the most is having some serious liver damage, despite having normal ALT values I cannot shake the bad news of my thought.
David
That iis why everybody with chronic Hep b must do periodic monitoring to arrest any anormaly on time before it can lead to any serious problem. I have also advised you to do imaging of your liver to check for any damage.
Kinoti
Hi. I’m 36 years old who was diagnosed with hep B for over 30 years. I recently had my blood done 2 weeks ago and liver ultrasound and my GI specialist said my results are good. He mentioned something about seroconversion and that it’s rare and that I’m lucky. He said I’m now immune. Which component determines that I had a seroconversion? So does it mean I no longer have hep b?
Viral load is undetected. Never been on treatment.
Hep Be Ag - negative
Hep Be Ab - positive
HBsAg - negative
Hep B Core Ab, tot - positive
My alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is elevated. Around 200. He said further testing is needed for this. I read that elevated ALP can be cause my liver damage.
Thank you!
Hi @lilgacon,
That’s great news! The seroconversion is shown by HBsAg being negative.
If only your ALP is increased and not your other enzymes (ALT or AST), then that might indicate something other than your liver. But your doctor will know best how to interpret your results.
Hope this helps,
Thomas
Dear Dr Douglas
Hope you are well. I had a fibro scan recently which gave me a reading of 10. How do I go about understanding this? Thanks for your input. Vinu
Dear Vinu,
You should discuss with your treating doctor to confirm the report as interpretation of readings can vary depending on the scanner, operator etc.
Generally a reading of 10 indicates advanced fibrosis, but does not confirm cirrhosis.
However this needs to be interpreted in the context of your other results and clinical examination to decide what else needs to be done.
Dear colleagues,
Attached is my latest report.
Please help me interpret.
AFP keeps on raising.18 this time.
Doctors says shape of liver changed and still won’t let me start treatment.
Fib-4 score is 1.43.
BUN/ Creatinine ratio is 38.5 and normaal range is 13-20.
Hbeag is negative
In where I am now there is no HBV DNA test but before a year it was less than <20 IU/ML.
I feel needle like pain on the feet and fingers. Pain under the right rib cage and chest. Itchy of the head.
I am really worried. Please share experiences.
Dear @Wadani1,
I’m just looking back at your previous posts and your AFP was 18 last time. There doesn’t seem to be a trend of it going up and a normal range is sometimes reported as less than 20. Same with your Fib-4 score, there seems to be no change.
The BUN score is something to do with kidneys, so you may have to follow up with your doctor to see what might be causing this high ratio. Same too with your pain and itchiness; this is not necessarily due to your Hepatitis B, but may be caused by other things.
Hope this helps,
Thomas
Hi all,
I don’t have actual lab results to post but could really use advice, or even a friendly explanation.
I’m 23 and have just moved to Korea from the UK and as part of my visa, I had to do a medical check. My results flagged that I was positive for Hep B. I did further tests and turns out its inactive for now, which I gather is a good thing however, this means I’ve been diagnosed with a chronic infection. I know I have to do blood tests and have a scan on my liver every six months. The problem is because of the language barrier and only moving here three weeks ago, I don’t know what it all means and I don’t want to panic myself going down an internet rabbit hole that will inevitably throw up the worst-case scenarios.
I’ve accepted the diagnosis and that it’s for life but I’m still processing it, especially because I have no idea and will never know how I got it and still don’t know much about my condition. Plus, living in a foreign country on my own, it’s hard to find advice that I can understand.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and any advice on what it means for me, ways to cope, and things I can do to help manage this are appreciated! x
Hi EH1999
Sorry for the language challenges you are experiencing. I pray you get through soon. I am happy to learn your hep b is inactive whatever that means.
A lot of the information you are looking for is contained in many trends in this forum. Try to look around.
Always
Kinoti
Sorry about what happened to you I my self was diagnosed a year ago almost also inactive stage too still. I know it’s scary at first an we all get mixed feelings about this disease I’m 42 years old my self don’t know how I got it I have 3 kids with my wife for 20 years an she doesn’t have it an was never vaccinated she is now of course. But You came to the right place this form is very helpful an informative for sure.
The people on here show a lot of love an concern about all the questions you may have. I was so stressed out an found this place an it gave me so much knowledge an hope an love. till this day I still come here to learn an talk to people who understand an try too answer my questions best they can. Just remember as long as you take care of your body an liver eat good get good sleep an exercise while monitoring you hep b. you should do just fine like a lot of us on here. They also have really good anti virals that keep the hep b viral load very low to undetected they are very effective treatments
. Don’t be afraid to ask an talk about your feelings an concerns.there’s a lot of good people on here that will help an give there best knowledge on here to you. Remember your not alone we’re all in this together that’s one of the best things I was ever was told on this platform. I wanna say thank you hep b community an all the people that help put hope love blessings an knowledge.you got this EH1999💪🏼
Thank you for your words of support, I really appreciate it! If you don’t mind me asking, were you able to get any more detailed information on what “inactive” really means? The doctor here wasn’t able to explain it very well, does it mean the virus is kind of ‘dormant’ like after you get chickenpox there is a small residual amount in the spinal fluid? I wasn’t put on any anti-viral meds either because it’s inactive, I’m presuming that’s normal as well?
Dear @EH1999,
Thanks for sharing your story and welcome to the community. That sounds really intense; I remember first moving to Germany and having a hard time understanding all the systems (even though most people spoke English). I was even very lucky having a wife who spoke German as well.
To answer your question, inactive HBV basically means that your immune system is successfully suppressing the virus to a large extent and there is not much inflammation. If you are in this phase and your virus load is low, then the guidelines suggest that antiviral treatment would not provide you much advantage. This may be the reason why you are not being prescribed antivirals at the moment.
This may change in the future though, the virus might find its way around the immune system or your immune system may grow weaker. So that’s why it’s important to keep monitoring: to keep a check on what’s happening and if it becomes active again (virus comes up and inflammation increases) then you can treat it early to prevent any disease.
Hope this helps,
Thomas
Thank you so much for your response Thomas, I really appreciate your knowledge and information, it’s helped me to understand where I’m at now. So, it’s really just a case of living my new normal and keeping up the regular checks. 
Hi. Is there a chance to get false negative result for HBsAG? My HBsAG on 3/4/2022 was negative and the doctor said I had a seroconversion. The result on 3/23/2022 was positive. This is so devastating. I thought I won the battle.
Hi @Lilgacon
While going through seroconversion, the HBsAg levels can be very low and close to the limit of detection of the blood test. During the process, you may get fluctuations between positive and negative.
What it basically means is that your system is in a dynamic situation and nothing is certain yet, but it is a good sign that it was negative and hopefully it will go back to negative in your upcoming tests.
Thomas
I got recently diagnosed Chronic Hep B. Saw an expert he ordered for additional blood work can anyone help understand and interrupt these results.
HEPATITIS B SURFACE ANTIGEN - Reactive
HEPATITIS B CORE AB TOTAL - Reactive
HEPATITIS BE ANTIBODY - Reactive
HEPATITIS B SURFACE AB IMMUNITY, QN - <5 L
HEPATITIS B VIRUS DNA - 72 H
HEPATITIS B VIRUS DNA - 1.86 H
HEPATITIS BE ANTIGEN - Non Reactive
Dear chirajkumar74
Welcome to the Hepb community. I may avoid responding to your concerns at this point but I am sure they will be adequately addressed.
Meanwhile,there are a lot of treds in this forum and I would encourage you to look around and see if many of your other concerns can be addressed.
Kinoti
Hi EH1999
Thank you for sharing your story.
I am a specialist in the field of Hepatitis B research and have lived in Korea for 5 years. I have personal experience with the difficulties of finding the right medical care not speaking the language but always have found great doctors in the end.
I contacted my collaboration partner at The Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Marys Hospital. The hepatology department is one of the best in Korea.
Dr. Pil Soo Sung is a hepatologist and assistant professor at Seoul St. Marys Hospital. He speaks English well and he would be happy to help you. Please feel free to contact him via email at
pssung@catholic.ac.kr
I already let him know that you might contact him.
Here is some more information about Dr. Sung https://www.cmcseoul.or.kr/page/en/doctor/83/D0000297
Please let me know if you have questions.
Hope this helps,
Alex
