Serum specimens collected from patients with chronic type B hepatitis during their acute exacerbations were studied with radioimmunoassay for serological markers of delta (delta) agent infection. Serum delta antigen was negative in all 56 hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive and 25 anti-HBe-positive acute exacerbations. Two (3.6%) HBeAg-positive and five (20%) anti-HBe-positive acute exacerbations were found to be positive for both IgG anti-delta and IgM anti-delta. The incidence in anti-HBe-positive patients was significantly higher than in HBeAg-positive patients. These results indicated that some of the acute exacerbations, particularly in anti-HBe-positive phase, could be attributed to delta-superinfection. However, acute exacerbations preceding HBeAg/anti-HBe seroconversion were not associated with delta-superinfection.
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Chu et al. (1986) studied this question.
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