1984 Volume 25 Issue 11 Pages 1385-1393
Sixty-six acute exacerbations in 45 HBsAg carriers with chronic liver disease were studied for IgManti-HBc by radioimmunoassay. 42 (63.6%) of 66 were positive for IgManti-HBc. Although in a greater part of these cases, titers of IgManti-HBc were lower than those in acute hepatitis B, in 11 (16.7%) of 66 exacerbations the titers were as high as those in acute hepatitis B and it seems difficult to differentiate chronic from acute infection in such cases.
The positivity of IgManti-HBc in cases with whom anti-HBe was persistently positive during acute exacerbations was higher than in HBeAg-positive cases. And because the elevations of IgManti-HBc was observed in all of the former cases, it is suggested that exacerbations in these cases are associsted with the active replication of hepatitis B virus.
Both the maximum values of transaminase level and HBeAg concentration in acute exacerbations had no correlation with the titer of IgMant-HBc.
