Distribution of Hepatitis B Antigenic Determinants in Different Forms of Viral Hepatitis

Abstract

The distribution of the a, d, and y antigenic determinants of hepatitis B antigen (HB Ag; hepatitis-associated antigen) was established among 114 patients, 72 with acute hepatitis and transient antigenemia and 42 with antigenemia lasting for a year or longer. Nineteen of the latter were asymptomatic with persistent (unresolved) hepatitis manifested by elevations of transaminase in serum and inflammation and necrosis in liver biopsies; the remaining 23 had chronic active hepatitis and cirrhosis confirmed by liver biopsy. There was no correlation between a given form of hepatitis and the occurrence of a given antigenic determinant. Serial specimens from the same patient always yielded HB Ag of the same subtype. The data support the concept that the a antigenic determinant has group specificity, that d and y are mutually exclusive, and that the latter are neither determinants of virulence nor is one more distinctly associated with chronicity of infection with hepatitis B virus than the other.