Abstract

In a study of the incidence of Australia (Au) antigen in the sera of patients with acute viral hepatitis taken early in the course of the disease, 3 of 66 patients (4·5%) were positive in the West of Scotland and none of 41 patients in Sheffield. Au antigen was not detected in 28 patients with Down's syndrome from a large Scottish mental institution, or in 31 chronic renal dialysis patients. Anti-Au(1) was not found in 167 patients who had received multiple blood-transfusions. This study suggests that the virus to which the Au antigen is closely related, is uncommon in Western Scotland and Northern England. Serum hepatitis associated with the Au antigen was found in 2 additional patients from the West of Scotland who had been given 125I-labelled fibrinogen as a diagnostic test for deep-vein thrombosis.

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