Behaviour of chosen acute phase proteins in acute viral type B hepatitis as a predictive factor of further evolution of the infection.

The study was aimed at the assessment of the immune system function of a large group of patients with early phase of acute viral type B hepatitis, who were subsequently follow-up in order to select those developing chronic forms of the infection. It was assumed that re-assessment of their initial immunological status with regard to further evolution of the infection would show some factors predictive of chronic active hepatitis development. Chosen immunological parameters: circulating blood lymphocyte sets and subsets, immunoglobulin concentrations, presence of non-specific immune complexes and concentrations of randomly chosen acute phase proteins (ceruloplasmin, transferrin, haptoglobin, alpha-acid glycoprotein, C3 and C4 complement components) were evaluated in 104 acute viral type B hepatitis patients, aged 18-50, on the days 8, 10, 15, 30, 40, 60, 80 and 130 of the illness. After mean of 744 days, 56 patients reported to final follow-up examination, 15 of whom presented with symptoms of chronic sequelae of acute HBV infection (elimination phase of chronic aggressive hepatitis, chronic persistent hepatitis, or integration phase of HBV infection). Behaviour of cellular immunity parameters, immunoglobulin concentrations, presence of immune complexes or non-specific antibodies, however varied in individual patients, showed no correlation predictive of chronic sequelae of the infection. Significant differences between patients who subsequently developed chronic active or chronic persistent hepatitis were found, however, with regard to all the acute phase proteins tested, most prominent in case of C3 and C4 complement components, haptoglobin, transferrin and ceruloplasmin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)