Chronic delta hepatitis: a difficult problem for the hepatologist.

Delta antigen was detected by means of direct immunofluorescence in the liver of 20 out of 118 chronic carriers of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Delta antigen was frequently found in young chronic HBsAg carriers with chronic active hepatitis. Positivity for anti-HBe occurred in almost all cases. A peculiar aspect of delta infection was a predominance in patients from Southern, rather than from Northern or Central Italy. Another interesting finding is the higher mean values of GOT and GPT in delta-positive patients compared with those in delta-negative patients. The follow-up of some patients confirmed that chronic delta hepatitis is a particularly progressive disease.