ABSTRACT
The paper is to report a retrospective study on delta antigen infection in 35 patients with severe hepatitis B (13 subacute and 22 chronic cases).One serum sample from each patients was collected at least 21 days (21～156 days)after the last attack of the disease,and anti-delta antigen was tested with EIA method (Abbot kit made in USA).The upper limit of O.D.value for positive resultswas calculated as 0.391.It was found that anti-delta antigen was positive in 12 cases(34.3%)out of the 35. 23.1%(3/13)of the subacute and 40.9%(9/22) of the chronic cases were positive.There were 3～5 serological parameters indicating HBV infection in each case.All the 12 positive patients were males of Han Nationality with a mean age of 34 years (a range of 19 to 51).11 were from Sichuan province and only 1 from Guizhou.3 were subacute cases without previous history of hepatitis,and aggravation of the clinical condition occurred in their course;there was a history of acute icteric hepatitis in the remaining 9 cases and 5 out of the 9 were long-term HBsAg carriers.The recent attack of the disease often showed a rapid progression to the severe stage within a month.It is suggested that delta antigen might be one of the factors leading to the aggravation of viral hepatitis.