[Essential mixed cryoglobulinaemia and hepatitis B virus (author's transl)].

Essential mixed cryoglobulinaemia is a nosological entity described by Meltzer and Franklin in 1966 and characterized by asthenia, arthralgias, purpura, glomerulonephritis and mixed IgM-IgG cryoglobulinaemia. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) markers were studied in the sera and cryoprecipitates of 6 patients with the syndrome. Five (83,3%) had at least one HBV marker and three (50%) had HBsAg either in the serum or in the cryoprecipitate. HBV therefore seems to be involved in the pathogenesis of essential mixed cryoglobulinaemia in a large number of cases.