Abstract
The management of chronic active hepatitis B is quite different from that for acute infection. We evaluated the clinical usefulness of Lumipulse HBcAb-N, which detects hepatitis B core IgG antibodies, in differentiating between acute and chronic hepatitis B as initial medical testing. Lumipulse HBcAb-N showed a remarkably high antibody titer only in patients with chronic hepatitis although Lumipulse II HBcAb, a conventional reagent, could not provide results to discriminate it from acute infection. Chronic hepatitis was also diagnosed by the trend in the antibody titer by using Lumipulse HBcAb-N; an increasing antibody titer was observed in acute hepatitis although a high titer persisted from the first examination in chronic patients. Our data suggest that Lumipulse HBcAb-N could provide more accurate and useful information for clinicians in assessing the phase of hepatitis B.
