Hepatitis B is a global serious disease caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV). There is no known cure for hepatitis B. The best way to deal with the disease is by preventing with hepatitis B vaccine. However, the current protein-based vaccines made up of recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) are ineffective in chronic HBV carriers and a significant number of the vaccinees do not mount the...

BACKGROUND Vaccination with the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) induces protective levels of antibody (anti-HBs = 10 IU/L) in majority of vaccinees. It has been shown that the levels of anti-HBs antibody do wane after vaccination. The aim of this study was to evaluate the persistence of anti-HBs antibodies in healthy Iranian children at 10 years after primary vaccination and the response to...

Background: Blood donation safety is one of the basic goals of the organization of blood transfusion in the world. Self-exclusion and failed options are additional screening tests to routine diagnostic tests which is performed to detect the transmitted infection through blood or blood products. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of these systems on the improvement of bloo...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of immunosuppressive anticancer therapy on titre levels of anti-hepatitis B surface antibodies (anti-HBs) in hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) negative and anti-HBs positive patients with haematological malignancies or solid tumours. METHODS This retrospective study reviewed the medical records of patients with haematological malignancies or solid tumours...

AIM To retrospectively analyze different methods in differentiating biliary atresia from idiopathic neonatal hepatitis. METHODS Sixty-nine infants with cholestatic jaundice and final diagnosis of idiopathic neonatal hepatitis (INH) and biliary atresia (BA) were studied retroprospectively from January 2004 to December 2006. A thorough history and physical examination were undertaken. All cases...

The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of hydroxyurea (HU) in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Thirty-four patients with sickle cell anemia (hemoglobin S [HbS]/HbS), 131 with HbS/ 0-thal, and 165 with HbS/ -thal participated in this trial. HU was administered to 131 patients, whereas 199 patients were conventionally treated. The median follow...

background: more than 350 million people are chronic carriers of hepatitis b virus (hbv) and because of the high hbv-related morbidity and mortality, the global disease burden of hbv is substantial. in patients with hbeag–negative chronic hepatitis b (chb) with serum alanine aminotransferase (alt) levels, 1-2 × upper limit of normal (uln) and hbv dna load of 10000 to 100000 copies/ml, liver bio...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To assess the ability of various clinical and laboratory parameters to predict the results of hepatobiliary scintigraphy (HBS) in patients with suspected acute cholecystitis. METHODS This was a retrospective chart review of all patients referred from the emergency department for an HBS in 1993 to exclude acute cholecystitis. The setting was a university-affiliated tertiary car...

BACKGROUND The interleukin (IL)18 rs360719 CC genotype is associated with the development of antibodies to hepatitis B virus surface antigen (anti-HBs) in hemodialysis (HD) patients. IL18 shares biological properties with IL12 in promoting the T-hepler 1 (Th1) system. We studied whether polymorphisms in the IL12A 3` untranslated region (UTR) and IL12B 3`UTR may contribute to anti-HBs developmen...