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Australia Antigen in Active Chronic Hepatitis in Australia: Results in 130 Patients from three Centres *
Author(s) -
Cooksley W. G. E.,
Powell L. W.,
Mistilis S. P.,
Olsen G.,
Mathews J. D.,
Mackay I. R.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 0004-8291
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-5994.1972.tb03072.x
Subject(s) - medicine , complement fixation test , antigen , incidence (geometry) , immunology , chronic hepatitis , hepatitis , population , epidemiology , hepatitis b , virology , antibody , serology , virus , environmental health , physics , optics
Summary: Sera from 130 patients with active chronic hepatitis from three cities in Australia were examined for the presence of Australia (Au) antigen. To increase sensitivity, most samples were tested by three methods, immuno‐diffusion, immunoelectro‐osmophoresis, and complement fixation, and serial samples were examined in 45 patients. The overall incidence of Au antigen in the 130 patients was only 3%; this is considerably lower than that reported from most other countries. This finding suggests that the wide differences in reported frequency of Au antigen are not due to variation in the immunological techniques used, and that persistence of Au antigen is not relevant to the pathogenesis of most cases of active chronic hepatitis in Australia. Moreover this low incidence of Au antigenaemia in active chronic hepatitis reflects the low frequency of the antigen in the Australian population.