This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on Web of Science (4)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

1971 to 1972 and 1986 to 1987

W. Robert Lange, MD, MPH; Edward J. Cone, PhD; Frederick R. Snyder, PhD

Arch Intern Med. 1990;150(2):365-368.

Abstract
• From 1971 to 1972 (N=105) and 1986 to 1987 (N=160), parenteral drug abusers seropositive for hepatitis B virus (HBV) markers were screened for antibodies to the hepatitis delta virus (anti-HD). In both time frames anti-HD was independently associated with the hepatitis B surface antigen. It was observed that 31% of those positive for hepatitis B surface antigen from the early sample and 20% of those from the latter sample had detectable anti-HD, as opposed to 10% and 7%, respectively, of those negative for hepatitis B surface antigen. Anti-HD seropositivity was unrelated to gender and ethnicity, and in the 1971 and 1972 nationwide sample, its presence was unrelated to geographic location. The probability of manifesting anti-HD increased with the more HBV markers detected, particularly the number of different HBV antibody markers. We conclude that anti-HD was widespread in parenteral drug abusers at least as early as 1971, and that its expression was associated with hepatitis B surface antigen and the intensity of the immune response to HBV as evidenced by the number of different circulating HBV antibodies.

(Arch Intern Med. 1990;150:365-368)

Author Affiliations
From the Addiction Research Center, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Baltimore, Md.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication August 9,1989.

Reprint requests to PO Box 5180, Baltimore, MD 21224 (Dr Lange).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?