In-situ hybridisation with HBV-cDNA as a sensitive method for the diagnosis of hepatitis B infection in persistent acute hepatitis.

Liver biopsies of 97 patients with persistent acute hepatitis, a morphologically distinct form of hepatitis with only slightly elevated transaminase values, were screened immunohistochemically for HBs and HBc, and with in-situ hybridisation for HBV DNA. Besides the 37 in part inconstantly immunohistochemically-positive patients, 47 others showed exclusively cytoplasmatic HBV DNA, localizing at least the major part of the replication of viral DNA to the cytoplasm of liver cells. A diffuse distribution pattern of HBV DNA-positive liver cells was accompanied by stronger morphological changes than focally accentuated positivity. In HBc-positive cases, distribution of HBV DNA corresponded mainly to the cytoplasmic type of HBc.