The significance of the HBeAg/anti-HBe system in hemodialysis patients. A multicenter study.

The HBeAg/anti-HBe system was studied as a marker of infectivity and chronic progressive liver disease in 460 hemodialysis patients. The importance of HBeAg as an index of infectivity was confirmed in that it was present simultaneously with specific DNA polymerase (31 patients) and by the presence of widely diffuse core particles in the hepatocyte nuclei (revealed by biopsy in six patients). In contrast, HBeAg showed no useful correlation with progressive liver disease, the absence of which was confirmed in all cases by biochemical and histological studies.