Association between maternal HBsAg carrier status and neonatal adverse outcomes: meta-analysis

Impact of maternal hepatitis B carrier status on congenital abnormalities: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVES

This study aims to explore whether maternal hepatitis B carrier status is associated with an increased risk of congenital abnormalities.

DESIGN

A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.

DATA SOURCES

PubMed, Embase (Ovid), Scopus, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and the Wanfang databases.

STUDY SELECTION

Five databases were searched systematically from inception to 7 September 2021. Cohort and case-control studies that investigated the association between maternal hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and congenital abnormalities were included. This study was conducted according to MOOSE (Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) guidelines.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS

Two reviewers independently collected data, as well as assessed risk of bias by using Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. We pooled crude relative risk (cRR) and adjusted OR (aOR) by DerSimonian-Laird random-effects model. Heterogeneity was explored by I ² statistics, Cochran's Q test. Several subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses were performed.

RESULTS

In total, 14 studies involving 16 205 pregnant women exposed to HBV were included. The pooled cRR of 1.15 (95% CI: 0.92 to 1.45; 14 studies included) showed a marginal but not significant association between maternal HBV-carrier status and congenital abnormalities. However, the pooled aOR of 1.40 (95% CI: 1.01 to 1.93; 8 studies included) indicated that pregnant women with HBV infection might be associated with a higher risk of congenital abnormalities. Subgroup analyses of adjusted data showed a higher pooling cRR or aOR on high prevalence HBV infection populations, as well as studies from Asia and Oceania.

CONCLUSIONS

Maternal hepatitis B carrier status might be at potential risk for congenital abnormalities. The existing evidence was not sufficient to draw a firm conclusion. Additional studies may be warranted to confirm the association.

PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER

CRD42020205459.

Asian Pacific association for the study of liver (APASL) guidelines: hepatitis B virus in pregnancy

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection still remains a major public health issue in the Asia-Pacific region. Most of the burden of HBV-related disease results from infections acquired in infancy through perinatal or early childhood exposure to HBV in Asia-Pacific. Hepatitis B during pregnancy presents unique management issues for both the mother and fetus. These APASL guidelines provide a comprehensive review and recommendations based on available evidence in the literature, for the management of females with HBV infection through every stage of pregnancy and postpartum. These also address the concerns, management challenges, and required follow-up of children born to hepatitis B-positive mothers.

Viral Infections During Pregnancy: The Big Challenge Threatening Maternal and Fetal Health

Viral infections during pregnancy are associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, including maternal and fetal mortality, pregnancy loss, premature labor, and congenital anomalies. Mammalian gestation encounters an immunological paradox wherein the placenta balances the tolerance of an allogeneic fetus with protection against pathogens. Viruses cannot easily transmit from mother to fetus due to physical and immunological barriers at the maternal-fetal interface posing a restricted threat to the fetus and newborns. Despite this, the unknown strategies utilized by certain viruses could weaken the placental barrier to trigger severe maternal and fetal health issues especially through vertical transmission, which was not fully understood until now. In this review, we summarize diverse aspects of the major viral infections relevant to pregnancy, including the characteristics of pathogenesis, related maternal-fetal complications, and the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms of vertical transmission. We highlight the fundamental signatures of complex placental defense mechanisms, which will prepare us to fight the next emerging and re-emerging infectious disease in the pregnancy population.

Obstetric implications of maternal chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Antenatal screening for hepatitis B surface antigen seropositivity is widely adopted to identify pregnant women with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in order to target their newborn infants for combined passive-active neonatal immunization to prevent the maternal-to-child transmission of HBV. It is less certain whether the presence of chronic HBV infection in these largely asymptomatic women could impact their pregnancy outcome. There is now gathering information in the literature, though sometimes conflicting, on the obstetric implications of chronic HBV infection. The conflicting data is most probably related to confounding factors such as the immunological phase of chronic HBV infection, viral genotype and activity, presence of hepatic inflammation and other co-existing liver disorders such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and coinfection with other virus such as hepatitis C virus and micro-organisms, which are usually not examined, but which could have made significant influence on the occurrence of many of the pregnancy complications and adverse fetal and neonatal outcome. For pregnancy complications, the evidence suggests association with increased gestational diabetes mellitus, preterm birth, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, caesarean delivery, and postpartum haemorrhage, probably increased placental abruption and prelabour rupture of the membranes, and no effect or a reduction in the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, especially preeclampsia. For perinatal outcome, there may be increased miscarriage and fetal malformations, and increase in both low birthweight and large-for-gestational age/macrosomic infants, as well as increased intrauterine fetal demise/stillbirth and fetal distress. However, most studies have not elaborated on the mechanisms or explanations of many of the adverse outcomes. Taken together, maternal chronic HBV infection increases the risk of adverse obstetric outcome overall, but further prospective studies are warranted to elucidate the reasons and mechanisms of, and with a view to mitigate, these adverse obstetric outcomes.

Chronic maternal hepatitis B virus infection and pregnancy outcome- a single center study in Kunming, China

Background

Chinese population has a high prevalence of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, the impact of which on pregnancy outcome remains controversial. A single-center retrospective cohort study was performed in Kunming, a multi-ethnic city in south-western China to examine this issue.

Methods

The singleton pregnancies delivering at ≥28 weeks gestation under our care in 2005–2017 constituted the study cohort. Maternal characteristics and pregnancy outcome were compared between mothers with and without seropositivity for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) determined at routine antenatal screening.

Results

Among the 49,479 gravidae in the cohort, the 1624 (3.3%) HBsAg seropositive gravidae had a lower incidence of nulliparity (RR 0.963, 95% CI 0.935–0.992) and having received tertiary education (RR 0.829, 95% CI 0.784–0.827). There was no significant difference in the medical history, pregnancy complications, or labor or perinatal outcome, except that HBV carriers had significantly lower incidence of labor induction (RR 0.827, 95% CI 0.714–0.958) and of small-for-gestational age (SGA) infants (RR 0.854, 95% CI 0.734–0.994). On regression analysis, maternal HBV carriage was independently associated with spontaneous labor (aRR 1.231, 95% CI 1.044–1.451) and reduced SGA infants (aRR 0.842, 95% CI 0.712–0.997).

Conclusions

Our 3.3% prevalence of maternal HBV infection was around the lower range determined in the Chinese population. The association with spontaneous labor and reduced SGA infants could have helped to promote the perpetuation of the infection through enhanced survival of the offspring infected at birth, thus explaining the high prevalence in the Chinese population.

Maternal hepatitis B infection status and adverse pregnancy outcomes: a retrospective cohort analysis

PURPOSE

To investigate the association between maternal HBsAg-positive status and pregnancy outcomes.

METHODS

The study enrolled women with singleton pregnancies who delivered during January-December 2018. Data of maternal demographics and main adverse pregnancy outcomes were collected from the institutional medical records and analyzed by univariate and multivariate logistic regression models to determine the association between maternal HBV markers (HBsAg/HBeAg/HBV-DNA loads status) and adverse pregnancy outcomes.

RESULTS

Total 1146 HBsAg-positive and 18,354 HBsAg-negative pregnant women were included. After adjusting for potential confounding variables, maternal HBsAg-positive status was associated with a high risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.24; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07-1.43], intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) (aOR = 3.83; 95% CI 3.14-4.68), preterm birth (aOR = 1.42; 95% CI 1.17-1.72), and neonatal asphyxia (aOR = 2.20; 95% CI 1.34-3.63). Further, higher risks of ICP and neonatal asphyxia remained with either HBeAg-positive status (aOR = 1.64; 95% CI 1.10-2.44; aOR = 3.08; 95% CI 1.17-8.00) or high HBV-DNA load during the second trimester (aOR = 1.52; 95% CI 1.06-2.35; aOR = 4.20; 95% CI 4.20-15.83) among HBsAg-positive pregnant women.

CONCLUSION

Women with maternal HBsAg-positive status may have increased risks of GDM, ICP, preterm birth, and neonatal asphyxia; furthermore, the risks of ICP and neonatal asphyxia were higher in women with HBeAg-positive status and a high HBV-DNA load during the second trimester among the HBsAg-positive pregnant women, implying that careful surveillance for chronic HBV infection during pregnancy is warranted.

Hepatitis B - chronic carrier status and pregnancy outcomes: An obstetric perspective

Antenatal screening for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) only identifies women with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection for neonatal immunoprophylaxis. It does not reflect the phase of chronic infection, viral genotype and activity, hepatic inflammation, or other co-existing liver disorders. Coinfection with other viruses and micro-organisms may also be present. These factors in various combinations can impact pregnancy outcomes, and they are probably responsible for the conflicting literature on this issue. Pregnancy complications may interact with maternal HBV infection and hepatitis flares, leading to serious and lethal complications. Hepatitis flares are common especially postpartum, and they are unpredictable and unpreventable with antiviral treatment. Evidence on the association between HBsAg seropositivity with gestational diabetes mellitus, preterm birth, increased foetal growth, and reduced pregnancy hypertensive disorders is stronger than other adverse pregnancy outcomes. Baseline assessment of liver function, and viral markers and activity, can delineate the truly high-risk pregnancies for close monitoring.

Maternal HBsAg carriers and adverse pregnancy outcomes: A hospital-based prospective cohort analysis

It is not clear whether chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection during pregnancy can increase the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes for both mothers and neonates. We conducted a hospital-based prospective cohort study on pregnant women (PW) and used an analysis strategy that was guided by directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). Maternal characteristics and major adverse pregnancy outcomes were collected both from questionnaires and hospital-based electronic medical records. Serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) status were determined. In total, 3329 of the 3416 pregnant women who received routine antenatal care in a hospital setting at baseline, including 346 HBsAg carriers, were available for analysis. Maternal HBsAg carrier status was associated with an increased risk of intrahepatic cholestasis pregnancy [aOR (adjusting odds ratio) = 1.70; 95% CI (confidence interval) = 1.16-2.49], premature rupture of the membranes (aOR = 1.38; 95% CI = 1.00-1.89) and large for gestational age birth aOR = 1.67; 95% CI = 1.17-2.39). The risk of intrahepatic cholestasis remained in pregnant women with either HBeAg-positive (aOR = 2.96; 95% CI = 1.33-6.62) or HBeAg-negative (aOR = 1.52; 95% CI =1.00-2.32)] status; notably, only maternal HBeAg-negative status was associated with a higher risk of large for gestational age birth (aOR = 1.91; 95% CI = 1.33-2.76). Our results implied that chronic HBV infection during pregnancy may increase the risk of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, premature rupture of membranes and large for gestational age pregnancies.

Maternal Hepatitis B Infection Burden, Comorbidity and Pregnancy Outcome in a Low-Income Population on the Myanmar-Thailand Border: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Objectives

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) was believed to have minimal impact on pregnancy outcomes apart from the risk of perinatal transmission. In more recent years, there have been reports of adverse associations, most consistently preterm birth (PTB), but this is in the context of high rates of caesarean section. The aim of this study was to explore the association of HBV on pregnancy outcomes in marginalized, low-income populations on the Myanmar-Thailand border.

Methods

HBsAg positive (+) point of care rapid detection tests results were confirmed by immunoassays. Women with a confirmed HBsAg status, HIV- and syphilis-negative at first antenatal care screening, singleton fetus and known pregnancy outcome (Aug-2012 to Dec-2016) were included. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate associations between HBV group (controls HBsAg negative, HBsAg+/HBeAg-, or HBsAg+/HBeAg+) and pregnancy outcome and comorbidity.

Results

Most women were tested, 15,046/15,114 (99.6%) for HBV. The inclusion criteria were not met for 4,089/15,046 (27.2%) women due mainly to unavailability of pregnancy outcome and nonconfirmation of HBsAg+. In evaluable women 687/11,025 (6.2%) were HBsAg+, with 476/11,025 (4.3%) HBsAg+/HBeAg- and 211/11,025 (1.9%) were HBsAg+/HBeAg+. The caesarean section rate was low at 522/8,963 (5.8%). No significant associations were observed between pregnancy comorbidities or adverse pregnancy outcomes and HBV status.

Conclusions

The results highlight the disease burden of HBV in women on the Myanmar-Thailand border and support original reports of a lack of significant associations with HBsAg+ irrespective of HBeAg status, for comorbidity, and pregnancy outcomes in deliveries supervised by skilled birth attendants.