Clinical significance of enlarged perihepatic lymph nodes in chronic hepatitis B

Goals: To evaluate the clinical significance of enlarged perihepatic lymph nodes in patients with chronic hepatitis B. Background: Enlargement of perihepatic lymph node is a common finding durin g ultrasonography in patients with chronic hepatitis. Its relation with liv er histology and viremia was reported in chronic hepatitis C, but little ha s been known about its clinical significance in chronic hepatitis B. Study: We evaluated the clinical significance of perihepatic lymphadenopath y in chronic hepatitis B. In 50 patients with biopsy-proven chronic hepatit is B and 15 healthy controls, the perihepatic lymph node volume was evaluat ed by ultrasonography and its possible correlation with biochemical tests, hepatitis activity index, and hepatitis B viremia was investigated. Results: Perihepatic lymph node was detected in 48 of 50 patients with chro nic hepatitis B (volume = 3.4 +/- 2.4 mL) and in two of 15 controls (0.4 mL and 0.6 mL). In chronic hepatitis B, lymph node Volume showed a significan t correlation with serum aspartate transaminase (r = 0.66), alanine transam inase (r = 0.63), gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase (r = 0.53), histologic acti vity index (r = 0.59), and necroinflammatory score (r = 0.59; p < 0.05 for all), but not with fibrosis score and serum hepatitis B viremia. Conclusions: Enlarged perihepatic lymph nodes in chronic hepatitis B can be a good indicator for histologic and biochemical inflammatory activity of t he liver, but not for viremia.