Background & Aims: Hepatitis B virus is one of the causes of acute and chronic hepatitis. Due to multiple hospitalization and blood transfusion, thalassaemic patients are at higher risk of this infection. Duration of the immunity after vaccination in this high-risk group and the need for booster vaccination is uncertain. The aim of this study was to find antibody titration and immunity to Hepat...

Background: Due to their similar routes of transmission, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) co-infection occurs considerably. HBV infection progresses more rapidly in HIV-infected patients. Therefore, HBV vaccination of all non-immune HIV infected patients is recommended. On the other hand, HIV-infected subjects have suboptimal responses to HBV vaccine. In this study...

The aim of this study was to compare the sensitivity and specificity of morphine-augmented hepatobiliary scintigraphy (MA-HBS) with that of conventional hepatobiliary scintigraphy (C-HBS) for acute cholecystitis. The results of most MA-HBS studies cannot be compared with C-HBS estimates, since articles describing C-HBS often include non-candidates for MA-HBS. However, using meta-analytic techni...

BACKGROUND Passively acquired maternal antibodies in infants may inhibit active immune responses to vaccines. Whether maternal antibody against hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) in infants may influence the long-term immunogenicity of hepatitis B vaccine remains unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Totally 338 pairs of mothers and children were enrolled. All infants were routinely vac...

Sickle hemoglobin (Fe(II)HbS) reconstituted with nickel(II)protoporphyrin IX yields an artificial hemoglobin (Ni(II)HbS), the first heme-substituted hemoglobin shown to mimic the polymerization of deoxyHbS. Unlike Fe(II)HbS, Ni(II)HbS does not bind oxygen and therefore polymerizes under aerobic conditions. While the polymer solubility coefficient (Csat) for Ni(II)HbS is elevated about 2 g/100 m...

In Taiwan, infants need to receive 3 doses of hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine under the public health policy from the government. However, there are many young adults who even though received complete HBV vaccination in their childhood would lose the positive response of anti-hepatitis B surface antibody (HBs) and need the booster dose of HBV vaccine. The aim of our study is to determine the po...

Diagnosis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection based on hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) detection can be hampered in the setting of HBV reactivation in immunocompromized patients with prior serology indicating past cured infection, and can be associated with severe or fulminant and fatal hepatitis. We present a case of HBV reactivation in a renal transplant patient in whom HBsAg failed to b...

We describe the production and characterization of human monoclonal antibodies (mAb) specific for the major hepatitis B virus (HBV) S protein. The mAbs, two IgG1κ and one IgG1λ, were secreted by B-cell clones obtained from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of one person convalescent from acute hepatitis B and one vaccinated individual. The former recognized a denaturation-insensitive ep...