Delta virus and hepatitis B surface antigen in chronic liver diseases

This work was carried out on 45 patients with chronic liver diseases, including 24 cases of liver cirrhosis and 21 cases of chronic hepatitis. Their ages ranged from 2 to 15 years (median 5). All cases were examined clinically and assessed biochemically for liver function tests. Serological studies were performed to detect hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and delta IgG antibody (IgG anti-HD) using Enzyme Immunoassay (EIA) technique. The study showed that IgG anti-HD was detected in 8.9% of cases with chronic liver diseases (all positive cases were with liver cirrhosis). On the other hand, HBsAg was detected in 53.3% of cases (54.2% of them with cirrhosis and 45.8% with chronic hepatitis) with no significant association between HBsAg positivity and type of hepatic illness. Moreover, IgG anti-HD was positive in only 4.2% of HBsAg positive cases, while 14.3% of HBsAg negative cases were positive for IgG anti-HD. A significant association was also found between delta positivity and serum glutamic oxaloacetic transferase level (SGOT). We concluded that chronic delta hepatitis appeared to be more severe than other types of chronic viral hepatitis, as all delta positive cases were with liver cirrhosis and had elevated SGOT levels. Screening of delta markers in addition to hepatitis B viral markers could improve the understanding of a number of obscure cases of chronic hepatic illnesses and would help in the control of HBV and consequently HDV infection in the general population.