Abstract
A high mortality rate due to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) associated with a high prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a big problem in all Asian countries, including Korea and Japan. In this study, a serological survey and a histopathological comparison of HBV-associated liver diseases in Korea and in the western part of Japan were performed. In- and outpatients of Kosin University Hospital (KUH) and of UOEH Hospital were analysed serologically, and the HBsAg-positive rate among the staff of both universities were also compared. Two-hundred consecutive biopsied livers in KUH, 400 autopsied livers in Kitakyushu, and 576 livers of medicolegal autopsies in Osaka were examined histopathologically. Serological positive rates of HBsAg were 14.5% in KUH patients and 7.0% in UOEH ones respectively (P＜0.001). Overall positive rates of HBsAg in liver tissues were 10.5% in KUH, 4.3% in Kitakyushu and 0.5% in Osaka. Primary liver cancers, most of which were HCCs, accounted for 3.4% of all inpatients in KUH and 1.9% in UOEH (P＜0.01). HBsAg-positive rates among liver cirrhosis and HCC patients were higher in Korea than in Japan. Alcohol was thought to be a predominant cause of 36 liver cirrhosis cases out of 576 cases from Osaka, and a low positivity of HBsAg and a low association of HCC in these Osaka case were noted. HCC patients of KUH were eleven years younger than those of UOEH on the average, and Edmondson's grade of the former was higher than the latter. It was concluded that HCCs in Pusan were younger, less associated with cirrhosis and rather poorly differentiated than those in Kitakyushu, Japan, and that they might be related to a higher rate of HBsAg carriers in the former.
