Influence of subtype on the prognosis of chronic type B hepatitis

We examined the subtype of HBs antigen positive chronic liver diseases of 480 patients whowere histologically diagnosable during the period from April 1972 to June 1987. In 480 patients, the number of adr was 356 (74.2%), that of adw was 51 (10.6%), that of ayr was 8 (1.7%), and that of ayw was 1 (0.2%). Besides the above subtypes, 52 patients (10.8%) showed adwr and 6 (1.3%) adyr. With respect to patients under 40 years old who were in a more aggravated stage than CH2B, such a stage was observed in 73 of 204 patients with subtype adr (35.8%), 5 of 23 patients with adw (21.7%), and 14 of 23 patients with adwr (60.9%). As for patients over 40 who were in a more advanced stage than CH2B, such a stage was observed in 111 of 152 with adr (73.0%), 16 of 28 with adw (57.1%), and 22 of 29 with adwr (75.9%), the last-mentioned group showing the highest percentage.