Cryoglobulinemia in chronic liver diseases.

Cryoglobulins were detected in six patients with chronic liver diseases. Three of them had postnecrotic cirrhosis, two had chronic active hepatitis and one had primary biliary cirrhosis. In none of them HBsAG or its antibody were detected. The cryoglobulin appeared during the course of the disease in two patients, one with chronic active hepatitis and the other with primary biliary cirrhosis. There was no proof for cause and effect relationship between the liver disease with cryoglobulinemia and an eventual infection with hepatitis b virus. The cryoglobulinemia might be due to the liver disease per se and it seems that it is not always related to an infection caused by the hepatitis B virus.