Paternal preconception HBV infection increase congenital heart disease risk in offspring: JAMA

A total of 6,675,540 couples in all took part in the NFPCP service and 3,047,924 couples were recruited in the trial after spouses with and without preconception HBV infection were matched in a 1:4 ratio. 0.025% of the children born to these spouses had CHDs. A prior paternal HBV infection was independently linked to CHDs in children when compared to no infection. The subgroup analysis based on maternal HBV immunity status yielded comparable results.

Couples with previously HBV-infected husbands had a similar risk of CHDs in their offspring when compared to couples with susceptible wives and uninfected husbands. This risk was similar for couples with susceptible wives and for couples with immune-compliant wives. The couples with newly infected men and immune wives had a substantially greater risk of CHD in their kids. However, there was no difference in risk between those couples and susceptible wives. The immunological state of the mother and the paternal HBV infection did not interact, it was discovered. Overall, this study shows that there may be a link between the likelihood of congenital heart defects in kids and prior paternal preconception HBV infection, which may harm sperm and embryo development.

Source:

Yang, Y., Liu, M., Han, J., Wu, H., Zhao, C., Lyu, X., Hu, X., Liu, Y., Xu, D., Xie, W., Huang, J., Wu, S., Li, J., Lei, J., Zhang, Y., Zhang, H., He, Y., Peng, Z., Wang, Y., … Ma, X. (2024). Paternal Preconception Hepatitis B Virus Infection and Risk of Congenital Heart Disease in Offspring. In JAMA Pediatrics. American Medical Association (AMA). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.2680