In two renal dialysis units which had outbreaks of hepatitis B, patients were studied for the presence of e antigen and antibody. In one unit, in which the illness was mild and most of the patients (78%) became carriers of HBsAg, all but one patient had e antigen. Most of the HBsAg carriers had persisting e antigen and most of the transient patients had also transient e antigen. In the other un...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Although there have been a few reports regarding the effect of basal core promoter (BCP) double mutations (A1762T and G1764A) on hepatitis B viral loads, the association remains uncertain. We aim to determine the association after controlling for HBeAg - a strong confounding factor. METHODS We selected randomly 190 individuals from a Chinese cohort of 2258 subjects for cross-s...

A radioimmunological neutralization assay for the determination of hepatitis B e antibody is described. The method is compared with a blocking and a competitive assay and with immunodiffusion. The neutralization assay proved to be the most sensitive method, and results obtained by this method were reproduced most easily. The frequency of nonspecific results may be up to 1% of the sera tested. A...

To describe the Hepatitis B e antigen(HBeAg) seroconversion related mutation profiles of the basal core promoter(BCP)/precore regions in e antigen seroconverted child patients, a cohort of 245 child patients with CHB and a control patients group of 92 adult patients with CHB were recruited. The mutation frequencies of six nucleotides or nucleotide combinations including nucleotide (nt)1896, nt1...

HBV-targeted ribonuclease (TR) is a fusion of HBV core protein (HBVc) and human eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (hEDN). Introduction of TR by transfection or transduction into HepG2.2.15 cells (a cell model of HBV infection) revealed that it significantly reduces serological markers of HBV replication (including HBsAg, HBeAg and HBV DNA) in cell supernatants, suggesting that the targeted ribonucl...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seroclearance and seroconversion are regarded as favorable outcomes of chronic hepatitis B (CHB). This study aimed to develop artificial neural networks (ANNs) that could accurately predict HBsAg seroclearance or seroconversion on the basis of available serum variables. METHODS Data from 203 untreated, HBeAg-negative CHB patients with spon...

BACKGROUND The timing of antiviral therapy cessation in hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative patients is controversial. Here, we aimed to investigate the role of HBV DNA and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) monitoring to predict off-treatment sustained response. METHODS A total of 53 HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B patients who received lamivudine for 34 ±23 (range 12-76) months and h...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Decay of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) titers has previously been shown to be predictive of a virologic response (VR), especially during peginterferon-alpha therapy. However, the role of HBsAg levels in predicting a VR to nucleos(t)ide analog therapy has not yet been established. In this study we sought to determine whether the VR can be predicted from HBsAg titers in nucl...

Background/Aim: Hepatitis B surface antigen(HBsAg) is routinely detected qualitatively in Hepatitis B Virus(HBV) infection where its persistence beyond 6 months defines chronic hepatitis B(CHB) infection. Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) usually indicates active HBV replication and risk of transmission of infection. In spite of the emerging use of chemiluminescence based quantitative HBsAg assays ...

28 of 1002 pregnant Sicilian women (2.8%) were asymptomatic HBsAg chronic carriers. 18 children of these women were followed and at least 15 of them showed evidence of transplacental infection with HBsAg, resulting either from the presence of the antigen in cord blood, or from the development of the corresponding antibody in the serum within the first 2 months of life. Despite this, only 2 or 3...