[Microscopic, immunochemical and ultrastructral study of livers histologically normal or subnormal in patients with hepatitis B surface antigen (HBs). Report of 18 cases (author's transl)].

Liver specimens obtained by biopsy in 18 patients with asymptomatic HBs Ag were studied with specific immunofluorescent technic for this antigen by light and electron microscopy. Only insignificant changes were disclosed by routine microscopy examination. Under light microscopy "ground glass" hepatocytes were found in eight cases. Specific immunofluorescence was found positive in nine cases and was closely correlated with the "ground glass" hepatocytes in eight of them. In one on the three cases studied by electron microscopy, only spherical and tubular formations, 20 to 30 nm in diameter found in the cisternae of the smooth endoplasma reticulum in a few hepatocytes, seem to be HBs Ag.