The detection of e-antigen and e-antibody by the radioimmunoassay (Dainabot Co., Ltd.) was investigated and it was compared with the immunodiffusion (ID) method

Abstract

1) By RIA, 86% of the tested cases are positive of either e-antigen or anti-e, and only 5% of them are both negative. The cases with the judge pended are 9% of them.
2) Although the co-existence of e-antigen and e-antibody was obviously confirmed only in 3 out of 774 cases, there were some cases among the cases with judge pended, where both e-antigen and e-antibody were considered to co-exiSt with each other.
3) The number of cases negative for both e-antigen and e-antibody and of cases with judge pended was the smallest among the asymptomatic carriers, followed by carriers with chronic hepatitis, and by carriers with liver cirrhosis, and the largest among the carriers with hepatocellular carcinoma, This iS because the number of caseS with low e-antigen units and of cases with co-existence of e-antigen and e-antibody increaSes in this order.
4) The number of positive cases as determined by ID corresponded to that as determincd by RIA, except one case. However, 42% of cases considered as positive for eantigen by RIA and 51% of cases positive for e-antibody were judged as negative by ID. This suggested that RIA is more sensitive than ID.