B 형 만성간질환 환자에서 Hepatitis Be Antigen 양성여부와 PPD 반응과의 상호 관계 = Relationship Between Hepatitis B e Antigen Positivity and PPD Reactivity in Chronic Liver Disease in KoreaB 형 만성간질환 환자에서 Hepatitis Be Antigen 양성여부와 PPD 반응과의 상호 관계

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The immunopathogenesis of chronic hepatitis type B still remains unknown. HBeAg positivity correlated more closely with the viral replication characterized by higher infectivity and a greater degree of liver damage than HBeAg negativity. Recently it has been suggested that BCG vaccination may be of therapeutic value in chronic hepatitis B infection, on the basis of an inverse association between HBeAg positivity and PPD reactivity. This study was designed to confirm the inverse association in Korea, where BCC vaccination is almost always given in infancy and where hepatitis B infection is prevalent. A total of 189 HBsAg positive patients with chronic liver diseases including 75 chronic active hepatitis and 114 liver cirrhosis, and 71 HBsAg-positive patients with primary liver cancer were tested for HBeAg, anti-HBe and PPD skin test. The results were summarized as follows: 1) There was no significant inverse association of PPD reactivity by HBeAg positivity or negativity (53. 6% vs 63.6%) in patients with chronic liver diseases or in patients with primary liver cancer (46.4% vs 58.1%). 2) An inverse association was not found in PPD negativity by anti-HBe positivity or negativity (60.6% vs 64.7%) either. 3) The age distribution of both HBeAg positivity and PPD reactivity showed a closely correlated declining tendency in positive reaction as age increased. These findings suggested that there was no significant inverse association between HBeAg positivity and PPD reactivity. We may conclude that BCG vaccination is of na value in converting HBeAg positivity to negativity.