[Morphological makeup of the structures containing HBsAg in the blood of acute and chronic serum hepatitis patients].

Immune electron microscopy was used to examine the morphological composition of HBsAg-containing structures in 20 patients with acute serum hepatitis (ASH) and severe accompanying disease in whom HBsAg had been detected by the gel precipitation test for a long time, and in 7 patients with HBsAg-positive chronic active hepatitis (CAH) developing after ASH. Small spherical particles were the predominant form of HBsAg-containing structures in all the sera. Among ASH patients, a significant number of tubular forms and Dane particles were detected mainly in patients with severe accompanying diseases. No correlation between the appearance of a large number of Dane particles and tubural forms and the severity of the disease in ASH was established. In CAH, tubular forms and Dane particles in large numbers were found only in patients with long periods after ASH. Large numbers of Dane particles in all the examined patients were combined with a large number of tubular forms.