Survey of hepatitis B status in hemodialysis patients in a training hospital in Urmia, Iran.

To evaluate the prevalence of HBV infection in chronic hemodialysis
patients at our dialysis center of Urmia's Taleqni Hospital, Urmia, Iran, we studied crosssectionally
the hepatitis surface antigen (HbsAg) status in blood samples of 167 active
chronic hemodialysis patients at our center with enzyme linked immunosorbant assay
(ELISA). The mean frequency of HbsAg+ was 6.58%, which was higher in patients less
than 50 years old than in those above 50 years (9.3% vs. 5.3%, respectively), in males than
females (10.5% vs. 2.5%, respectively), and in those on three times dialysis than twice per
week (7.1% vs. 0.0%, respectively). We did not find a significant relationship between
the factors of: age, sex, being resident in city or village, duration of the therapy, history of
blood transfusion, marital status, job status, history of kidney transplantation, and prevalence
of HbsAg+.