A comparative study of hepatitis B and non-B in hospitalized adults in an endemic area.

The epidemiologic, clinical and laboratory features of 40 adults with acute viral hepatitis type B were compared with those of 40 adults with hepatitis non-B. Overall, the clinical presentations were remarkably similar and the etiology could not be determined in individual cases. An exception to this was that all post-transfusion cases in this series were affected by hepatitis B. Men predominated in both the hepatitis B and non-B groups. There was a tendency to seasonal clustering in summer/autumn in both groups. Hepatitis B patients were significantly older and 59% of them had a history of possible parenteral exposure during the six months preceding admission. On the other hand 76% of patients with hepatitis non-B had no apparent parenteral exposure. Dental treatment, injections and contact with jaundiced patients were recorded in both groups and were therefore of no value in determining the exact etiology in individual cases. Fever was more common in hepatitis non-B, while the onset of the disease was insidious and afebrile in 80% of patients with hepatitis B. As a group, patients with hepatitis B had more extensive liver injury and a more prolonged clinical course, and the only fatality was in this group. Cholestatic features were rare and extrahepatic immune complex disease was extremely uncommon in both hepatitis B and non-B.