Remarks on the pathogenic significance of HBsAg subtypes.

The frequent controversies concerning the possible different pathogenic significance of antigenic hepatitis B virus subtypes determined the authors to analyse the mean values of some biochemical tests in two groups of acute viral hepatitis patients. The results obtained show that a more marked alteration of these values is correlated with the presence of HBsAg/ay in one of the groups (89 patients) and with that of HBsAg/ad in the other group (33 patients). Some explanations of these findings are suggested.