Hepatitis B/C — MCQs

A 35-year-old man comes to the clinic complaining of yellow discoloration of his skin and eyes for the past week. He also complains about loss of appetite, nausea, malaise, and severe tiredness. He has no known past medical history and takes over-the-counter acetaminophen for headache. He has smoked a half pack of cigarettes every day for the last 15 years and drinks alcohol occasionally. He has been sexually active with a new partner for a month and uses condoms inconsistently. His father and mother live in China, and he visited them last year. Temperature is 37°C (98.7°F), blood pressure is 130/90 mm Hg, pulse is 90/min, respirations are 12/min, and BMI is 25 kg/m2. On physical examination, his sclera and skin are icteric. Cardiopulmonary examination is negative, no lymphadenopathy is noted, and his abdomen is tender in the right upper quadrant (RUQ). His liver is palpated 3 cm below the costal margin. On laboratory investigations: Laboratory test Complete blood count Hemoglobin 15 g/dL Leucocytes 13,000/mm3 Platelets 170,000/mm3 Basic metabolic panel Serum Na+ 133 mEq/L Serum K+ 3.6 mEq/L Serum Cl- 107 mEq/L Serum HCO3- 26 mEq/L BUN 12 mg/dL Liver function test Serum bilirubin 3.4 mg/dL Direct bilirubin 2.5 mg/dL AST 2,100 U/L ALT 2,435 U/L ALP 130 U/L What is the next best step to do in this patient?

A 27-year-old man presents to the clinic for his annual health check-up. He currently complains of fatigue for the past few months. He has no significant past medical history. He admits to being sexually active with men and also is an intravenous drug user. He has never received a hepatitis B vaccine. His blood pressure is 122/98 mm Hg, the respiratory rate is 16/min, the pulse is 68/min, and the temperature is 37.0°C (98.6°F). On physical examination, he appears fatigued and unkempt. His tongue and buccal mucosa appear moist and without ulcerations or lesions. There are no murmurs or gallops on cardiac auscultation. His lungs are clear bilaterally. No lesions are present on the surface of the skin nor skin discoloration. The physician proceeds to order a hepatitis B panel to assess the patient’s serologic status: HBV DNA positive HBsAg negative HBeAg negative HBsAb negative HBcAb positive HBeAb negative Which of the following disease states is the patient exhibiting?

A 43-year-old male presents to a clinic for routine follow-up. He was diagnosed with hepatitis B several months ago. He does not have any complaints about his health, except for poor appetite. The general physical examination is normal. The laboratory investigation reveals mildly elevated aminotransferases. Which of the following findings indicate that the patient has developed a chronic form of his viral infection?

A 31-year-old man comes to the physician because of a 2-day history of nausea, abdominal discomfort, and yellow discoloration of the eyes. Six weeks ago, he had an episode of fever, joint pain, swollen lymph nodes, and an itchy rash on his trunk and extremities that persisted for 1 to 2 days. He returned from a backpacking trip to Colombia two months ago. His temperature is 39°C (101.8°F). Physical examination shows scleral icterus. Infection with which of the following agents is the most likely cause of this patient's findings?

A 52-year-old male patient with chronic alcoholism presents to an ambulatory medical clinic, where the hepatologist elects to perform comprehensive hepatitis B screening, in addition to several other screening and preventative measures. Given the following choices, which serologic marker, if positive, would indicate the patient’s immunity to the hepatitis B virus?

A 52-year-old female presents to her primary care physician for medical evaluation prior to an elective hip replacement surgery. She has hypertension and diabetes, both of which are well controlled on oral medications. She also admits to occasional use of recreational injection drugs so a panel of serologies are obtained. Based on the results, the patient is found to have had a previous infection with hepatitis B from which she has fully recovered. Which of the following is a characteristic of the immunoglobulin subtype that most likely binds to hepatitis B core antigen in this patient?

A 35-year-old male anesthesiologist presents to the occupational health clinic after a needlestick exposure while obtaining an arterial line in a patient with cirrhosis. In addition to a standard bloodborne pathogen laboratory panel sent for all needlestick exposures at his hospital, additional hepatitis panels are ordered upon the patient's request. The patient's results are shown below: HIV 4th generation Ag/Ab: Negative/Negative Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg): Negative Hepatitis C antibody: Negative Anti-hepatitis B surface antibody (HBsAb): Positive Anti-hepatitis B core IgM antibody (HBc IgM): Negative Anti-hepatitis B core IgG antibody (HBc IgG): Positive What is the most likely explanation of the results above?

In a previous experiment infecting hepatocytes, it was shown that viable HDV virions were only produced in the presence of a co-infection with HBV. To better understand which HBV particle was necessary for the production of viable HDV virions, the scientist encoded in separate plasmids the various antigens/proteins of HBV and co-infected the hepatocytes with HDV. In which of the experiments would viable HDV virions be produced in conjunction with the appropriate HBV antigen/protein?

A 28-year-old woman with a history of intravenous drug use is brought to the emergency department because of a 1-day history of fatigue, yellow eyes, confusion, and blood in her stools. She appears ill. Her temperature is 38.1°C (100.6°F). Physical examination shows pain in the right upper quadrant, diffuse jaundice with scleral icterus, and bright red blood in the rectal vault. Further evaluation demonstrates virions in her blood, some of which have a partially double-stranded DNA genome while others have a single-stranded RNA genome. They are found to share an identical lipoprotein envelope. This patient is most likely infected with which of the following pathogens?