title: Clinical and immunological findings in hepatitis B antigen-positive and hepatitis B antigen-negative chronic active hepatitis.
abstract: The clinical, biochemical and immunological data of 24 hepatitis B antigen-positive and 24 hepatitis B antigen-negative patients have been compared. In B antigen-positive hepatitis, being mostly the disease of males, an acute onset was frequent and perceivable cirrhosis at the time of diagnosis not frequent. In B antigen-negative chronic active hepatitis, in addition to the predominance of females, a "primary chronic" process, cirrhosis, elevated ESR, immunocytopenia, elevated alkaline phosphatase and IgG levels were more frequent. As regards the positivity of humoral and cellular autoimmune reactions and the impairment of normal cellular immune activity, no essential differences were found between the two forms of the disease. It is concluded that though the two clinical conditions represent diseases different in aetiology and manifesting with certain clinical and biochemical differences the role of immunological factors may equally be important in their pathogenesis.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001323:Autoantibodies; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006505:Hepatitis / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology*; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens; D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M