Australia‐sh Antigen in Patients With Liver Diseases

Abstract

Among 84 patients with jaundice and liver disease, the Australia‐SH antigen was demonstrated in the serum of ten. Nine of these patients were scored as suffering from serum hepatitis or “possible serum hepatitis”. The last patient who had the Australia‐SH antigen in her serum suffered from chronic hepatitis. The Australia‐SH antigen was not demonstrated in serum of any of the 35 patients with infectious hepatitis. Thus, the present limited data appear to confirm that there is a specific association between serum hepatitis and occurrence of the Australia‐SH antigen, as reported by Prince (1968) and Giles et al. (1969).

Detection of Australia‐sh Antigen in Serum.

“…Discolouration of stools and urine was obaerved in all. A diagnosis of "possible serum hepatitis" was established because they had all undergone procedures such as surgical incisions, dental treatment, injections, or inoculations within the last six months before onset of disease (Solaas et al 1971). The results of tlie laboratory tests of the liver function in these patients are shown in Fig.…”

“…The Australia-SH antigen has been shown to be strongly associated with serum hepatitis ( Prince 1968, Krugman & Giles 1970, Solaas et al 1971. However, the antigen has been demonstrated to occur a t low frequency in serum of apparently healthy blood donors ( Prince 1968, Gocke ct al.…”