Chronic evolution of acute hepatitis type B: prevalence and predictive markers.

During a prospective study of acute symptomatic viral hepatitis, started in 1978, 664 consecutive adult patients, including 223 drug abusers, fulfilled the diagnostic criteria (anti-HBc IgM positivity) for acute type B hepatitis. In order to evaluate the outcome of the disease, 443 patients were followed for up to 12 months after the onset. 2.4% of the infections became chronic; the rate did not significantly differ between drug addicts and non-drug abusers, suggesting that chronic hepatitis is a rare complication of acute symptomatic hepatitis type B. Ongoing liver damage after clearance of HBsAg from serum was observed in drug abusers only (14% of the cases). Clinical, biochemical and virological features of the acute phase in patients with ongoing infection were compared with those of uncomplicated cases. Anicteric hepatitis and lower transaminase values were significantly (p less than 0.05) associated to a chronic evolution of the disease, as well as a higher prevalence of HBV-DNA, DNA polymerase and HBcAg positivity in serum. Testing HBV-DNA and DNA polymerase early in the course of the infection appeared to be of high predictive value for the subsequent outcome of the illness.