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Present Status of Hepatic Function Tests in the Detection of Carriers of Viral Hepatitis
Author(s) -
Norris Robert F.,
Potter H. Phelps,
Reinhold John G.
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
transfusion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.045
H-Index - 132
eISSN - 1537-2995
pISSN - 0041-1132
DOI - 10.1111/j.1537-2995.1963.tb04624.x
Subject(s) - population , medicine , viral hepatitis , hepatitis , thymol , liver function tests , gastroenterology , immunology , chemistry , environmental health , chromatography , essential oil
A progress report on the use of hepatic function tests in detecting the blood carrier of viral hepatitis by means of hepatic function tests is presented. In the case of 29 single donors suspected of being hepatitis carriers who gave blood and who were examined in this hospital, three‐fourths had one or more abnormal tests and one‐half had an abnormal thymol turbidity and/or thymol flocculation tests. This is virtually the same incidence of abnormality as in imprisoned narcotic addicts. In the case of 29 single donors giving blood in the local Red Cross center or in Red Cross or community centers at a distance from Philadelphia on whom hepatic function tests were also done in this hospital, abnormal tests were found in only one‐quarter, and thymol turbidity and/or thymol flocculation tests were abnormal in only one‐sixth of them. These rates of abnormality are similar to those of the general donor population. It is suggested that persons from the lower social and economic classes of the large metropolitan centers of the United States who donate blood for a fee are apt to be alcoholics and narcotic addicts and are, therefore, more likely to be chronic carriers of viral hepatitis than are more stable elements of the population. It is in this group that the use of the thymol turbidity and flocculation tests appears to be valuable in a screening regimen for the carrier state of viral hepatitis.