A new study published in the Journal of American Medical Association found that the risk of congenital heart disease (CHD) in kids was linked to prior paternal preconception hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Previous research indicates a close link between congenital heart defects in kids and maternal infection with the hepatitis prepregnancy or pregnancy. However, the link of paternal HBV contamination with CHDs is not widely investigated. Therefore, Ying Yang and colleagues undertook this study in order to evaluate the connection of paternal preconception HBV contamination with CHDs in kids.This retrospective cohort study analyzed data from March 2023 to February 2024 where the primary exposure was paternal preconception HBV infection status, which included uninfected, hepatitis B envelope antigen negative, and previous infection, both serum hepatitis B surface antigen, and fresh infection. Maternal HBV immune status was additionally classified as immune or susceptible. Male participants whose wives were aged 20 to 49 years, were not infected with HBV, and successfully conceived within 1 year after prepregnancy examination were included. The primary result was CHDs, which were gathered via the NFPCP birth defect registration card. 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