Abstract
Among the causes of 119 death cases of the HBsAg carriers, liver cirrhosis was found in 27 cases and hepatoma was found in 25 cases. Of the sex ratio in two diseases, the male occupied more than three times as much as the female.
Three of 17 cases of acute hepatitis B and 4 of 9 cases of posttransfusion hepatitis B were found to be a HBsAg carrier, but both types became non-carrier in the course of observation without the case of chronicity.
Of the cases which showed normal transaminase activity and contain a large amount of HBsAg in their sera initially, 21 cases became HBsAg negative on examination in 6 months. In 12 of the 21 cases, anti-HBsAg became detectable in the course of the follow-up study.
Of the cases which showed slight abnormality of transaminase activity and contain a large amount of HBsAg in their sera initially, 12 cases became HBsAg negative on examination in 6 months. Though anti-HBsAg became detectable only in 3 cases no tendency to chronicity was found.
Comparative review was made on the result of the follow-up studies of 458 HBsAg carriers, dividing them into three groups based upon the presence or absence of e-antigen and e-antibody. Abnormality of transaminase activity was found at high rate in e-antigen positive group, e-antibody positive group and group in which the antigen and antibody were not detected, respectively. The abnormality of transaminase activity was remarkable especially in male.
Conversion HBsAg carrier to non-carrier was noted in 15 cases, and after the disappearance of HBsAg, their liver function revealed normal value except one case.
The manifestation in HBsAg carrier seems to be ascribed to the presence of HBsAg itself rather than to that of e-antigen.
