Presence of hepatitis B virus DNA in serum of surface-antigen-seronegative immunocompromised patients.

摘要

We compared the prevalence of serum hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in cancer patients who were immunocompromised with that in healthy subjects. Testing positive for serum HBV DNA were 27 of the 232 (11.6%) surface-antigen-negative cancer patients and 7 of the 382 (1.8%) surface-antigen-negative healthy subjects. These data suggest that the negative serology, at least in immunocompromised individuals, is probably not sufficient to exclude HBV infection.