The discovery of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), a known marker of hepatitis B virus, has made a great progress in characterization of hepatitis B virus and in evaluating its role in various liver diseases. In Korea, where acute viral hepatitis is epidemic and the prevalence of HBsAg among healthy people is high, there is a growing need to study the immunologic and . the epidemiologic aspect of HBsAg. The authors detected HBsAg by employing double immunodiffusion techniques in 57,144 serum. samples which had been brought to chemical laboratory during the period from Mar. 1972 to Nov. 1976.
The results are summarized as follows:
1. HBsAg was detecetd in 2,304 samples among 57,144 samples with the positive rate of 4.03%. The positive rate of HBsAg was higher in male (4.52%) than that in female (3.47%).
2. The occurrence rate of HBsAg was 4.47% in 1972 and 3.40% in 1976 and there was decrease by 1.07% during the period of 5 years. HBsAg occurrence rate in male was decreased by 0.92% from 1972 to 1976, while in female, it was 0.45%. The difference in HBsAg occurrence rate between male and female was 1. 48% in 1972 and 1.01°% in 1976.
3. The highest occurrence rate of HBsAg was found in the age group of 10^-´19 years (6.85%) and the lowest (1. 32%) was in those above 60 years of age. High positive rate of HBsAg was found in the 2 nd and the 3rd decades in both sexes and in male, under 4 years of age.
4. Seasonal occurrence of HBsAg showed high positive rate during the period from November to February and from May to August.
5. HBsAg was found most frequently in active chronic hepatitis (54.2%) and liver cirrhosis (44.7 %), hepatoma(36.6%), chronic hepatitis(29.4%) and acute viral hepatitis(27.4%) also showed high positive rate -of HBsAg.
6. In patients with liver cirrhosis and active chronic hepatitis, HBsAg positive patients showed higher s-GOT and s-GPT values than those without HBsAg.
7. According to the different departments, the occurrence rate of HBsAg was found highest in samples from pediatrics(5.16%) and lowest in those from special ward (the well-facilitated ward) (2.77F,,/).
8. HBsAg was found more frequently in samples from out-patient departments (4.75%) than those from in-patients (3.86%).
9. There was an increase in the´.occurrence rate of anti-HBs and it was most prevalent in 50 to 59 years of age (L 76%). It was found most frequently in February and least in November.
10. HBsAg and anti-HBs was detected simultaneously in 5 samples among 57,144 samples with the detection rate of 0.009%.
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