Rosy Sultana

Bangladesh University of Health Sciences (BUHS), Bangladesh

Title: Hepatitis E virus: A potential risk factor for morbidity and mortality in Bangladeshi pregnant women

Abstract

Background and Aim: Hepatitis E virus (HEV), the most frequent cause of acute hepatitis often poses a potential threat to maternal health during pregnancy. Severe morbidities with fulminant hepatitis and/or acute liver failure leading to death are commonly caused by pregnancy-related HEV infections. Its pathophysiological basis yet to be confirmed. This study was aimed to focus HEV infection as a potential risk factor for morbidity and mortality in expectant mother.

Methods: A total 121 female patients (57, pregnant and 64, nonpregnant) with acute hepatitis in tertiary care hospitals, Dhaka were recruited and 4 ml of blood sample collected from each patient. Liver enzymes and HEV antibodies (IgM and IgG) were determined by enzymatic method and ELISA, respectively and viral copy number (VCN) by Real time qRT-PCR. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS V15.0 and GraphPad Prism V6.0.

Results: Mean (±SD) serum ALT and AST was significantly higher in early acute stage compared to late acute stage of hepatitis (p<0.0001 and 0.003 respectively) patients. Significantly higher Log VCN (p=0.019) and significantly lower log HEV-IgG SI values were observed (p=0.030) in pregnant patients at late acute stage compared to their non- pregnant counterpart. Five patients expired following hepatic and extra-hepatic

complications, 4 of them were pregnant in third trimester and 1 was non-pregnant. One pregnant woman was in early acute stage of hepatitis. Of five deceased cases, viral copy number was detected in two cases (1982 and 15634 copies/ml).

Conclusions: Lower HEV- IgG levels in pregnant hepatitis patients render minimum neutralizing effect that yield greater viral copy number in late acute stage resulting in significant morbidity. This study demonstrated, HEV induced fulminant hepatic failure and compromised immune response likely led to death of five patients. This calls for greater research to explore the exact pathological foundation of fatality in pregnant mother with HEV hepatitis.

Biography

Rosy Sultana is presently working as a Professor at the Department of Immunology, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences (BUHS). She accomplished her PhD from the University of Dhaka in July 2023 and able to publish three articles in reputed peer-reviewed journals from her doctoral research. She has conducted her research on “Influence of Hepatitis- E viral load and genotypes on pregnant urban dwellers of Bangladesh” under the supervision of Dr Firdausi Qadri, Senior Scientist at ICDDR,B and Prof M Manjurul Karim, Dhaka University. She graduated from a Public Medical College in Bangladesh in 1989. She started research at the Department of Immunology, BIRDEM in 1995 with an aim to develop her career in Immunology. She obtained a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Immunology from the University of Dhaka in 2002 and performed her research work on “Prevalence of antibodies against measles, mumps and rubella in Bangladeshi children: a pilot study to evaluate the need for integrated vaccination strategy.” She attended a number of National and International Scientific Conferences at home and abroad. She has a good number of publications in National and International journals. Her research interest includes infectious diseases in the fields of bacteriology, Virology and parasitology, Immunology, Molecular Genetics, and Bioinformatics.

2nd International Conference on Gynecology and Obstetrics

Rosy Sultana

Title: Hepatitis E virus: A potential risk factor for morbidity and mortality in Bangladeshi pregnant women

Abstract

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