The relation between anti-albumin antibodies and HBeAg/anti-HBe status as a marker of HB virus replication.

In this paper, the relation between anti-albumin antibodies and HBeAg/anti-HBe in patients with viral hepatitis B was studied. It was shown that anti-albumin antibodies occur more frequently in HBeAg-positive patients (48.1%) than in anti-HBe-positive patients (20.0%). In sera that contained anti-albumin antibodies it was found that HBeAg was positive in 60.5%, but only in 25.7% of sera which did not contain anti-albumin antibodies. The results were discussed from the point of view of a possible protective role of anti-albumin antibodies.