[Radioimmunologic determination of the Australia antigen during the course of viral hepatitis].

Australia Antigen was detected by radioimmunoassay technique in 80 cases of viral hepatitis. Incidence of the antigen was 40% in patients with epidemiologic data of infectious hepatitis, 84% in patients with epidemiologic data of serum hepatitis and 61% in a group of patients not reporting a reliable epidemiologic history. The count rate was periodically determined during the course of the illness in the attempt to evaluate, within the limits of the method, the amount of the antigen in the serum samples. Results are briefly discussed, together with the problem of the correlation between the presence of Australia Antigen and the two types of hepatitis infection.