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Follow‐up Studies on Liver Disease Associated with HB S Ag Carriers
Author(s) -
Bolin T. D.,
Davis A. E.,
Liddelow A. G.
Publication year - 1976
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.1445-5994.1976.tb03989.x
Subject(s) - medicine , liver biopsy , liver disease , hbsag , cirrhosis , liver function tests , hepatitis , biopsy , chronic liver disease , liver function , gastroenterology , hepatitis b , pathology , immunology , hepatitis b virus , virus
Summary: Follow‐up studies on liver disease associated with HB s Ag carriers. T. D. Bolin, A. E. Davis and A. G. Liddelow, Aust. N.Z. J. Med., 1976, 6, pp. 539–542. Eight male subjects who were initially studied in 1972 with liver biopsy because of HB s Ag carrier status were re‐studied two years later with liver biopsy, clinical examination and standard liver function tests. Three of the eight subjects remained antigen positive and had continuing liver disease, this being either chronic active hepatitis or chronic persistent hepatitis. Two subjects became HB s Ag negative and their liver biopsies returned to normal. One subject became HB s Ag negative but his biopsy disclosed chronic active hepatitis with cirrhosis in the presence of normal liver function tests. While persistence of the antigenaemia is associated with persisting liver disease, the converse is not true in that the disappearance of the antigen does not necessarily imply an improvement in liver disease. Liver biopsy remains the only reliable means of assessing liver disease as biochemical tests of liver function and the clinical finclings may be of little value.