background: the clinical significance of antiphospholipid antibodies in patients with chronic hepatitis c virus (hcv) and some other viral infections is controversial. objective: to study the prevalence of anticardiolipin antibody (acla) and antibeta2glycoproteini antibody (antibeta2gpi antibody) in hcv and hepatitis b virus (hbv) infected patients and its association with liver clinical parame...

BACKGROUND Seroconversion rates reported after Hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination globally ranges from 85-90%. Health care workers (HCWs) are at high risk of acquiring HBV and non responders' rates after HBV vaccination were not reported previously in Pakistani HCWs. Therefore we evaluated immune response to HBV vaccine in HCWs at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. METHODS Descri...

BACKGROUND The frequency of protective antiviral memory B cells after hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination is unknown. METHODS A novel 2-step immunomagnetic protocol to assess the ex vivo frequency of protective HBV surface antigen (HBsAg)-specific memory B cells was used. RESULTS HBsAg-specific memory B cells were detected in vaccinated individuals, although at very low frequency (median, 0...

BACKGROUND AND AIM The localization of hepatitis B virus (HBV) core antigen to the nucleus or cytoplasm of hepatocytes has biological implications for viral packaging and persistence. This study examined the relationship between the localization of hepatitis B virus antigens, histological activity, and viral titer in patients with chronic HBV infection. METHODS Liver biopsies from 110 patient...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis B virus infection is a very common cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. It is estimated that 3% of Iranians are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus. Current population-based studies on both rural and urban prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection in Iran are sparse with results that do not always agree. We performed this study to find the prevalence of hepatit...

The efficacy of a heat inactivated hepatitis B virus vaccine, containing 3 micrograms hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), was studied in a high risk group of 800 susceptible homosexual men by a randomised placebo controlled double blind trial. At the trial end point (21.5 months), 17 hepatitis B virus infections had occurred in vaccinated subjects (attack rate 4.8%) and 56 in subjects receivin...

Using the Staphylococcus aureus absorption method, we have modified a commercial radioimmunoassay kit for the determination of total antibody to hepatitis B core antigen so that we can now determine the predominant globulin species of that antibody. One-hundred percent of acute hepatitis B sera had a predominance of immunoglobulin M antibody to hepatitis B core antigen, whereas immunoglobulin G...

The titer of antibody against core antigen of hepatitis B virus in the immunoglobulin M class (IgM anti-HBc) was determined by an IgM capture assay of reduced sensitivity (30 arbitrary units). The distribution of titers among 235 acute hepatitis patients who were hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive suggested that 600 U forms a lower cutoff value for acute hepatitis B. Clinically appare...