Abstract

The authors investigated the activities of some serum enzymes in 66 cases of patients with HBsAg positive liver diseases and in 52 cases of patients with HBsAg negative ones and 25 cases of adult healthy controls. The patients with HBsAg positive liver diseases were consisted of 14 cases of acute hepatitis, 8 cases of chronic hepatitis, 29 cases of liver cirrhosis and 15 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma. And the patients with HBsAg negative liver diseases comprised 9 cases of acute hepatitis, 11 cases of chronic hepatitis, 20 cases of liver cirrhosis and 12 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma. Diagnosis was confirmed clinically and pathologically in all the patients. Serum HBsAg was detected by reverse passive hemagglutination test. Serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activities were measured by Reitman-Frankel method. And serum alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity was estimated by Kind-King method and serum gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (r-GTP) activity by Orlowski method. The results obtained were summarized as follows: 1) The activities of serum AST and ALT were significantly higher in HBsAg positive liver cirrhosis than those in HBsAg negative one. 2) The activity of serum r-GTP was significantly higher in HBsAg positive chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis than that in HBsAg negative ones. 3) In HBsAg positive liver cirrhosis, a significant positive correlation was found between AST and AP activity and between ALT and AP activity, in HBsAg negative acute hepatitis between ALT and AP activity and in HBsAg positive hepatocellular carcinoma between AP and r-GPT activity, respectively. 4) In the HBsAg positive chronic hepatitis, a significant negative correlation was also observed between serum ALT and r-GTP activity On the basis of the results mentioned above, it is suggested that estimation of some serum enzyme activities may be somewhat helpful for differentiation between HBsAg positive and HBsAg negative liver diseases.