Follow-up ten years after corticosteroid therapy for chronic active hepatitis type B.

Follow-up studies were conducted on chronic liver disease patients treated 10 years previously with corticosteroid (CS), Hbs antigen (HbsAg) was measured in previously collected paraffin embedded liver sections by enzyme-labelled antibody technique. Of 57 cases examined, 38 cases were treated with CS or immunosuppressive agents and 19 cases were not treated with CS (control group). -- Two deaths occurred in the CS-treated group and 4 in the non-CS treated group. These patients were diagnosed as either the 2B type (severe activity) of chronic aggressive hepatitis (CAH) or as having liver cirrhosis. One death was found in the 10th year due to hepatocellular carcinoma in a chronic persistent hepatitis (CPH) patient with HBsAg diffusely distributed in liver tissue. No significant difference was found in the rehabilitation rate in HBsAg negative cases of the CS group versus the control group. In positive cases, the rehabilitation rate was found to be 66.7% in the CS group compared with 0% in the non-CS group.