Open Access 01-12-2022 | Hepatitis B | Case report
Association of acute hepatitis B and acute myopathy: a case report
Published in: Journal of Medical Case Reports | Issue 1/2022
Login to get accessAbstract
Background
Hepatitis B virus infection is a global public health problem. Although hepatitis B virus primarily affects hepatocytes, it sometimes develops disease manifestations outside the liver, such as myopathy, which is commonly caused by chronic hepatitis B.
Case presentation
This case report describes a 57-year-old Iranian woman admitted to the hospital with jaundice, fever, body itching, abdominal pain, progressive muscle weakness, icteric sclera, right upper quadrant pain, and decreased muscle force. Examination on the first day of admission revealed that the patient was negative for hepatitis D antibody, positive for hepatitis B core (IgM) antibody, positive for hepatitis B surface antigen, and negative for hepatitis B e antibody but positive for hepatitis B e antigen. Moreover, she showed high levels of hepatitis B virus DNA viral load, creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase, serum glutamic-pyruvic transaminase, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, and alkaline phosphatase, and electromyography/nerve conduction velocity showed acute myopathic process.
Conclusions
Interestingly, myopathy symptoms improved after improving hepatitis symptoms and decreasing hepatitis B viral load, suggesting a close association between hepatitis B infection and myopathy.