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Prevalence of williams e 1 antigen in comparison with e 2 antigen in hepatitis b antigen carriers and patients in hemodialysis unit
Author(s) -
Ohori Hitoshi,
Yamada Ei,
Tateda Akira,
Ishida Nakao
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.1890060109
Subject(s) - antigen , virology , hemodialysis , medicine , hepatitis b , immunology
The prevalence of both e 1 and e 2 antigens in 1,158 sera of asymptomatic HBsAg carriers, carriers in hemodialysis units, and HBsAg‐negative blood donors was examined. The detection rate of e 1 antigen was as high as 80% in asymptomatic carriers, 95% in hemodialysis patients, and even 13,1% in HBsAg‐negative donors. All of the e 1 antigen‐positive specimens in such HBsAg‐negative sera were found to have both or either anti‐HBs and anti‐HBc, suggesting the past history of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection of the donors. In the HBsAg‐positive serum, the detection rate of e 2 antigen (17%) was lower than that of e 1 (80%), and all sera having e 2 antigen were positive for e 1 antigen. The titers of HBsAg, HBcAg, and anti‐HBc in e 2 antigen‐positive sera were higher than that of sera detecting only e 1 antigen. The appearance of e 1 antigen and e 2 antigen in the course of post‐transfusion hepatitis B was studied with five cases. Retrospective study showed that three of them each received one unit of HBsAg‐positive blood, and the other two received HBsAg‐negative blood but with high‐titered anti‐HBc. In four cases out of five, in which e 2 antigen was detected during the course of infection, the initial detection of e 2 antigen occurred at or just before the elevation of liver enzyme levels. On the other hand, e 1 antigen was detected relatively early after transfusion, and the time of its initial appearance could not be correlated to the time of onset. Moreover, the detection period of e 1 antigen persisted longer, even after the disappearance of HBsAg antigenemia. These two separate studies suggest that not only e 2 antigen but also e 1 antigen are associated with the infection of HBV, but they are distinct from each other; the e 2 antigen may have the properties of a signal of the viral activity in the patient as suggested by many others, but e 1 antigen does not seem to bear such diagnostic values.