The role of the hepatitis B virus infection in patients with chronic hepatitis in argentina

Over a seven-year period, we monitored 221 patients with chronic hepatitis from two medical centers. By using the counterlectrophoresis (CEP) test to detect the presence of HBsAg and anti-HBc, or both, we established that 87.7% of them had hepatitis B infection. Serum specimens originally found negative for HBsAg by CEP were further tested by reversed passive hemagglutination (RPH), and those originally found negative for anti-HBc by CEP were further tested by radioimmunoassay (RIA). Five patients were anti-HBc-positive and HBs-Ag-negative. No sex predominance was observed, but HBsAg incidence increased with increasing age. The HBeAg antigen was detected in 46.8% of the 161 cases tested for it; the most frequent subtype found was adw (63.7%). The present findings indicate that HBV infection largely contributes to the development of chronic hepatitis in Argentinian patients.