[Prevalence of antibodies against the hepatitis B virus in alcoholic liver diseases].

The prevalence of serum antibody to hepatitis B virus antigen (anti-HBs and anti-HBc) were determined in biopsy proven alcoholic liver disease (n = 60), compared with: an age and sex-matched hospital control population (n = 60), HBsAg-negative chronic liver disease (n = 27), renal unit patients (n = 32) and volunteer blood donors (n = 286). All sera were HBsAg negative (RIA). The prevalence of total hepatitis B virus antibody was significantly increased (p less than 0,001) in alcoholic liver disease (71%), as well as in renal unit patients (65%) and non-alcoholic liver disease (66%), versus hospital controls (35%) and blood donors (43%). These data suggest that hepatitis B virus infection might be a factor in selecting which alcoholic patients go to develop hepatic damage.