Radioimmunoassay detection of hepatitis type B antigen. A prospective study in blood donors and recipients.

Abstract

Of 161 recipients who received blood transfusions at the Providence, RI, Veteran's Administration Hospital, seven (4.3%) developed biochemical and/or histological evidence of viral hepatitis. Hepatitis type B antigen (HBAg) appeared in the sera from five of these patients during the course of their disease. One of these patients had received a unit of blood containing HBAg detected by counterimmunoelectrophoresis (CIE). The other four patients with HBAg-positive serum had received blood presumably negative for HBAg by CIE. However, subsequent studies using a sensitive double-antibody radioimmunoassay (RIA-DA) procedure revealed HBAg in ten of the 91 units administered to these four patients in which type B viral hepatitis had developed. Thus, donor blood negative for HBAg by the currently recommended CIE method may contain low HBAg concentrations detectable by RIA-DA which, when administered to recipients, can result in viral hepatitis type B.