ABO blood groups, intestinal alkaline phosphatase and haptoglobin types in patients with serum hepatitis.

A series of 150 patients with serum hepatitis were examined for the incidence of the Australia antigen (HBsAg) and associations with ABO blood groups, haptoglobin types and occurrence of intestinal serum alkaline phosphatase. Among the patients studied 11.3% were positive for HBsAg. When compared to controls patients with blood group O showed a significantly increased risk for serum hepatitis (p less than 0.05), while those with group B showed a decreased risk (p less than 0.01). The presence of the intestinal fraction of alkaline phosphatase showed a negative association with serum hepatitis (p less than 0.01) and there was no significant association between alkaline phosphatase types and ABO groups among the patients. The frequency of the Hp1 gene was significantly increased (p less than 0.01) among the patients as compared to controls.