The Severity of Hepatitis D in Young Adults of Age 18-25 Years

Background Current literature on the prevalence and characteristics of hepatitis D virus (HDV) infection in young adults is limited. This study aims to determine the disease characteristics and severity in young adults. Methods The case records of HDV RNA positive patients of age 18-25 years were analyzed. Results Out of 119 patients, 105 (88%) patients were male. HBV-DNA was detectable in 83 (70%). Hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg) was non-reactive in 99 (83%). Cirrhosis was identified in 45 (37.8%) individuals; nine (7.5%) were classified as Child class B or Child class C. Twenty-four (20.2%) had a Model For End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score of ≥10, out of these 16 had a score of 15 or more. The risk of decompensation was calculated according to the Baseline-event-anticipation (BEA) score; eight (6.7%) patients were at BEA-A (mild risk), 105 (88.2%) were at BEA-B (moderate risk), and six (5.0%) were at BEA-C (severe risk). Notable findings in patients with cirrhosis included splenomegaly, low total leucocyte counts, low platelets, high bilirubin, elevated aspartate aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyl transferase and international normalization ratio, low albumin, high AST to Platelet Ratio Index (APRI), and high BEA score. The splenic size, platelet count, and albumin levels were independently associated with cirrhosis (p < 0.001, <0.001, and 0.003). A model using a combination of platelet count, albumin, and spleen size was developed to accurately predict cirrhosis in this cohort. It had an area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) of 0.935. Conclusions HDV-infected young adults, age 18-25 years, were at moderate to severe risk of disease progression. About one-third of patients had already developed cirrhosis indicating the aggressive nature of the disease.