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AUSTRALIA ANTIGEN AND VIRAL HEPATITIS IN SYDNEY: A HOSPITAL SERIES
Author(s) -
Hawkes R. A.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1970.tb50162.x
Subject(s) - medicine , hepatitis , viral hepatitis , antigen , immunology , hepatitis b , incidence (geometry) , blood transfusion , hepatitis e , gastroenterology , virology , biology , biochemistry , gene , physics , genotype , optics
Australia antigen was found to be associated with 19·8% of cases of acute viral hepatitis in a hospital series in Sydney. It was found more frequently with transfusion‐associated hepatitis (seven out of eight patients) than with non‐ transfusion‐assoclated hepatitis (31 out of 184 patients—16·8%). The antigen was also detected in one healthy woman in a group of 164 from whom blood was taken at parturition, one patient undergoing hæmodialysis who had no symptoms of hepatitis, and one patient with atypical hepatitis. However, the antigen was not found in the sera of 201 healthy blood donors, 52 patients with liver diseases other than hepatitis, 70 patients with a variety of other viral infections, 34 children at birth, seven patients with Hansen's disease, and 57 patients who had suffered an attack of viral hepatitis 2 to 21 months previously. The proportion of male hepatitis patients who possessed Au antigen was appreciably higher than that of female patients, significantly so when nontransfusion‐associated cases were considered, and the incidence of the antigen was higher in patients aged over 20 years than in the group under 20 years. The group of hepatitis patients with the antigen had significantly more severe illnesses, as measured by duration of Illness and peak SGPT and serum bilirubin levels, than the group without antigen. In most cases, antigen became undetectable between four and 61 days after the onset. However, in some patients undergoing hæmodialysis, antigen persistence was much more lengthy. When sequential sera from Au antigen‐positive patients were collected, the intensity of antlgensemia usually decreased gradually with time. In most cases, elevated SGPT and serum bilirubin levels persisted in sera beyond the time when Au antigen became undetectable. Transplacental passage of the antigen could not be demonstrated in the case of a woman, aged 24 years, who was carrying the antigen during the period in which she gave birth to twins.