PROSPECTIVE HISTOLOGICAL AND IMMUNOHISTOC HEMICAL STUDY OF THE LIVER IN BLOOD-DONORS FOUND TO BE ASYMPTOMATIC CHRONIC CARRIERS OF HBS-ANTIGEN - BASED UPON 34 CASES

The authors report a prospective study of 34 chronic HBs Ag carriers d etected among a cohort of 9029 blood donors. Liver biopsy performed in all cases revealed a normal liver in 5 cases (14.7%), non-specific le sions in the form of fatty infiltration or mild portal inflammation in 3 cases (8.8%), chronic persistent hepatitis (CPH) in 21 cases (61.7% ) (mild in 19 and moderate in 2) and chronic active hepatitis (CAH) in 5 cases (14.6%) (mild in 1 and moderate in 4). Liver function tests w ere abnormal in 28.8% of patients with CPH and 20% of those with CAH. Histologic activity index was calculated and was more than 6 in 40% of CAH and 6 or less in CPH and non-specific lesions. Immunohistochemica l study revealed cytoplasmic labelling for HBs Ag in 82.4 per cent of cases and nuclear labelling for HBc Ag in 11.4% of cases with a hetero geneous and non-regular pattern affecting all or part of the cytoplasm , single or clusters of hepatocytes or even sheets of hepatocytes.