With established competitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, serum HBV DNA concentration was determined in 125 patients with primary hepatic carcinoma(n = 38), liver cirrhosis (n = 36) and chronic hepatitis (n = 51) with different serum HBV immunological markers. The results showed that: (1) No significant variation of HBV DNA concentration was detected in patients with different chronic liver diseases; (2) About one third of the examined patients whose five serum HBV markers were negative and anti-HBs were positive showed low level of viral replications; (3) The total concentration of HBV DNA in the patients with positive HBeAg were significantly higher than that in patients positive for anti-HBe, but also found a high HBV DNA concentration in some of the latter. It suggests that the manner of viral replication were not correlated with the period of the chronic liver disease. So HBV replicative status may not be completely determined only by seroconvertion of HBeAg to anti-HBe.