[Anti-smooth muscle antibodies in a hospital population]

A total of 139 sera being 60 patients with liver disease were tested for auto-antibodies. Twenty six of the 60 patients had active chronic hepatitis, 19 acute hepatitis, 3 cirrhosis, 3 hepatosplenic schistosomiasis mansoni, and 9 miscelaneous liver pathology. We found positivity for smooth muscle antibody in 26 cases: smooth muscle antibody-V in 15 cases, for smooth muscle antibody-T in 9, and for smooth muscle antibody-G in 10 other patients. Nine out of 10 patients with positive smooth muscle antibody-G had chronic active hepatitis and the remaining had cirrhosis. The other kinds of smooth muscle antibodies were irregularly distributed among the different hepatic disease studied. The higher levels of auto-antibodies were found mostly in chronic hepatic disease.