title: Hepatitis B antigen in saliva, urine, and stool.
abstract: A survey of hepatitis B patients, asymptomatic hepatitis B antigen (HBsAg) carriers, and control subjects was conducted to determine the relationship between antigenemia and antigen excretion in saliva, urine, and stool. Radioimmunoassay was used to detect HBsAg. Specificity-confirmed HBsAg was detected in the saliva of 6 (30%) of 20 antigenemic patients, 1 (5%) of 20 nonantigenemic patients, 14 (34%) of 41 carriers, and 0 of 112 controls. HBsAg was detected in urine only after 100-fold concentration of first-morning specimens. Specificity-confirmed HBsAg was present in the urine of 7 (16%) of 43 carriers; unconfirmed HBsAg was found in the urine of 5 (13%) of 38 patients and 5 (5%) of 112 controls. Unconfirmed HBsAg was detected in concentrated stool specimens from 5 (46%) of 11 patients and 3 of 8 carriers and controls. Longitudinally collected specimens from antigenemic subjects showed no consistent patterns of antigen excretion.
mesh_terms: D002353:Carrier State; D005243:Feces / Q000276:immunology*; D005374:Filtration; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000276:immunology*; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens / Q000032:analysis*; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012463:Saliva / Q000276:immunology*; D014556:Urine / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens