Role of hepatitis Bs antigen in chronic glomerulonephritides in Nigerians

Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique (Boehring Institute Laboratory), eighty-one adult patients were studied for hepatitis Bs antigenaemia. Nine of the patients had asymptomatic persistent proteinuria, thirty-nine, nephrotic syndrome, and thirty-three had profuse proteinuria, azotoaemia and hypertension. The histopathology obtained in forty showed twenty-two with MCGN, four with focal glomerulosclerosis, three with proliferative glomerulonephritis, one with minimal change glomerulonephritis and ten with end-stage kidney disease. None of the patients had apparent clinical evidence of liver disease nor a past history of jaundice. One hundred and eighty apparently normal adults served as controls; 33.3% of the patients had positive hepatitis Bs antigenaemia, in contrast to 6% (P less than 0.001) in the normal controls. Hepatitis Bs antigenaemia was more prevalent in the groups with nephrotic syndrome and persistent asymptomatic proteinuria than in the group with advanced renal failure. Hepatitis Bs antigenaemia was detected in all histopathologic forms but was most prevalent in the MCGN (P less than 0.001) which is also the more commonly encountered lesion. The implications of these findings are discussed.