We read with interest the report of Mutchnick et al. 1 I on the effectiveness of thymosin therapy for chronic hepatitis B. Both in this paper and in the accompanying editorial (2), the authors cite the study by Dabrowslu et al. (31, which described the ability of thymic factor X (TFX), an extract of calf thymus similar in its properties to thymosin fraction 5, to enhance mitogen responsiveness and to increase T-lymphocyte numbers in patients with chronic hepatitis B. The second part of this report concerning biochemical, histopathological and serological data has been partly published in Polish literature (4) and therefore reniains unknown to the international community. We would like to have the opportunity to summarize briefly the results of the origmal study, which was conducted in the years 1977 to 1979, and to summarize our further experience with TFX therapy.
Thirty patients with documented CAH B were subjects of the original study. All patients were observed for a minimum of 6 mo before entry into the study, and during this period the serological. clinical and biochemical parameters remained stable. None of the patients had had prior immunosuppressive or antiviral therapy and none was homosexual. Twenty-one patients were treated with TFX, and nine served as a control group. Both groups were prospectively matched with respect to age, gender, biochemical parameters and hepatic histopathological features; however, the patients were not randomly assigned to the respective groups. The control group consisted of patients for whom frequent control visits were inconvenient because they lived far from Warsaw. Controls were observed simultaneously every 3 mo for the duration of the study. They were treated with multivitamin preparations only.