Monoclonal anti-HBs antibodies radioimmunoassay and serum HBV-DNA hybridization as diagnostic tools of HBV infection: relative prevalence among HBsAg-negative alcoholics, patients with chronic hepatitis or hepatocellular carcinomas and blood donors.
Anti-HBs monoclonal antibodies radioimmunoassay (m-RIA) and HBV-DNA hybridization techniques were used to detect HBs antigen (HBsAg)--associated determinants (evidence of HBV on-going infection) and HBV-DNA sequences (evidence of viral multiplication) in the serum samples of 479 patients who were HBsAg negative by standard solid-phase radioimmunoassay. They included 128 alcoholics, 104 patients with chronic hepatitis, fifty-four with an hepatocellular carcinoma, 100 with coagulation disorders and ninety-three blood donors. The aim of this study was the comparison in these populations of the prevalence of the various HBV markers. m-RIA detected HBsAg-associated determinants in 1% of blood donors, 3% of coagulation disorders, 3.1% of the alcoholics, 21.1% of chronic hepatitis and 16.6% of hepatocellular carcinoma; hybridization identified HBV-DNA sequences in 0.9%, 2.2%, 10.9%, 9.6% and 5.5% of these cases, respectively. The combined prevalence of both markers of an on-going HBV infection (with or without viral multiplication) was 14.16%, 26.9% and 22.2% in the latter groups, respectively, as compared with only 3% in patients with coagulation disorders and 2.1% of blood donors. These results confirm the frequency of HBV or HBV-related virus infection in alcoholics, in chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinomas, despite the absence of HBsAg by standard RIA (or even of any other usual marker); this gives further evidence for variations in the expression of HBV infection. A high and quite similar prevalence of usual serum markers and hybridization results was observed in the alcoholics and in the patients with chronic hepatitis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Pol
S
S
Unité d'Hépatologie--INSERM U-99, Hôpital Laënnec, Paris, France.
Thiers
V
V
Nalpas
B
B
Degos
F
F
Gazengel
C
C
Carnot
F
F
Tiollais
P
P
Wands
J R
JR
Berthelot
P
P
Brechot
C
C
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000382:microbiology*; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology; D001782:Blood Donors; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000382:microbiology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006505:Hepatitis / Q000382:microbiology*; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies / Q000032:analysis; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000382:microbiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D011863:Radioimmunoassay
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D004279:DNA, Viral; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens