Circulating MicroRNAs in Plasma of Hepatitis B e Antigen Positive Children Reveal Liver-Specific Target Genes

Table 1

Characteristics of children with chronic hepatitis B and of healthy controls [4].

	Chronic hepatitis B		Healthy; controls
	HBeAg pos.	HBeAg neg.
Number of patients	34	26	60
Male	14 (41%)	12 (46%)	33 (55%)
Female	20 (59%)	14 (54%)	27 (45%)
Age (years)
Mean	8.8	12.0	7.1
SD	3.7	3.4	3.7
Race
African	4	6	1
Asian	22	15	9
Caucasian	8	5	50
ALT (U/L ref. value 5–45)
Mean	46.5	25.6	14.3
SD	27.6	12.6	5.3
HBV DNA (IU/mL)
Mean	5.1E  +  08	8.5E  +  02	NA
SD
Genotypes
A	2 (6%)	2 (8%)
B	11 (32%)	2 (8%)
C	5 (15%)	2 (8%)
D	12 (35%)	7 (27%)
E	3 (9%)	2 (8%)
F	1 (3%)	0 (0%)
N/A	0 (0%)	11 (42%)	60 (100%)

ALT: alanine aminotransferase.
N/A: not analysed.