{"doi":"10.1093/infdis/jiac168","title":"Clearance of Hepatitis B e Antigen in Untreated Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis","abstract":"BACKGROUND: In people with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, persistence of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) is associated with clinical progression and need for treatment. HBeAg loss represents partial immune control and is a critical event in the natural history of chronic HBV. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies that report HBeAg loss among people with untreated chronic HBV. We evaluated HBeAg loss using a random-effects model and conducted subanalysis on region. RESULTS: We screened 10 560 publications, performed 196 full-text analyses, and included 26 studies for meta-analysis. The pooled rate of HBeAg loss was 6.46/100 person-years (PYs) (95% confidence interval, 5.17-8.08). Meta-regression showed that older age of participants and studies in Europe were associated with higher rate of HBeAg loss. Rates per 100 PYs were 7.43 (95% confidence interval, 6.30-8.75; 1 study) in Africa, 3.24 (2.61--4.02; 1 study) in the Eastern Mediterranean, 13.67 (11.21-16.66; 4 studies) in Europe, 7.34 (4.61--11.70; 5 studies) in North America, and 5.53 (4.05--7.55; 15 studies) in the Western Pacific. CONCLUSIONS: Spontaneous HBeAg loss occurs at a rate of 6.46/100 PYs. Variations by region and age group may reflect epidemiological, immunological, or HBV genotype-related differences.","journal":"The Journal of Infectious Diseases","year":2022,"id":276540,"datarank":0.3453877639491069,"base_score":2.302585092994046,"endowment":2.302585092994046,"self_citation_contribution":0.3453877639491069,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.3453877639491069,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":9,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9616,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":686131,"name":"Anne F. Liu","orcid":"0000-0003-3275-5347","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":379901,"name":"Arthur Y Kim","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":905805,"name":"Patrick Coffié","orcid":"0000-0002-6486-2991","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":906398,"name":"Menan Gérard Kouamé","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":273595,"name":"Kenneth A. Freedberg","orcid":"0000-0001-6471-7930","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":905806,"name":"Anders Boyd","orcid":"0000-0001-9512-8928","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":273590,"name":"Emily P. Hyle","orcid":"0000-0001-8721-106X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":234611,"name":"Amir M. Mohareb","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":51,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:28:30.709588Z","pmid":"35511194","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}