[Identification of latent HBV infection in primary hepatic carcinoma and liver cirrhosis with polymerase chain reaction].

In order to explore latent. HBV infection in primary hepatic carcinoma (PHC) and liver cirrhosis (LC), serum HBV X and S gene were tested with polymerase chain reaction in 40 cases of PHC and LC with both negative HBsAg and HBeAg. The positive rates for X and S gene were much the same. The S gene-positive cases were, however, slightly more than the X gene-positive ones. In the cases of PHC and LC with all the five serum immunologic markers negative HBV DNA was found in 56.3% (9/16) and 45.5% (5/11) of the cases respectively. Of those patients with positive anti-HBs or anti-HBe, HBV DNA was found in 4/8 and 1/4 of the cases respectively. It was shown that in the cases of PHC and LC with all the five markers-negative, about half of them seems to be still related with HBV infection. Some of the PHC and LC cases with positive anti-HBs or anti-HBe may also have low level of viral replication. Detection of HBV DNA with multiple genes is of help to identify more PHC and LC patients with latent HBV infection.