A critique and systematic review of the clinical utility of hepatitis B core-related antigen.

Background & Aims: Hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) is a new biomarker for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) whose performance has not been critically or systematically appraised. Herein, we performed a systematic review to determine its clinical utility.

Methods: We evaluated the biological pathway of HBcrAg and performed a systematic review of PubMed for clinical trials, cohort studies, and case-control studies that evaluated the clinical utility of HBcrAg.