Evaluation of the available anti-HCV antibody Detection Tests and RT-PCR assay in the Diagnosis of Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Abstract EN

The aim of the present work is to evaluate the commercially available antibody tests in the diagnosis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection by comparing their results with the RT-PCR test.

The study included 316 serum samples from three groups : blood donors, patients on maintenance hemodialysis (HD) and patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Samples were subjected to HCV-antibody detection by ELISA and RIBA tests and HCVRNA detection by RT-PCR assay.

The percentage of infectivity for blood donors was 18.9 % by ELISA, 20.8 % by RIBA and 23.6 % by RT-PCR test.

For patients on HD and those positive for HIV, the test positivity was respectively 59.3 % and 5.3 % by ELISA, 64 % and 10.5 % by RIBA and, 66.3 % and 21 % by PCR test.

The percentage of false negativity of HCV-Ab by ELISA and RIBA when compared with RT-PCR test was 3.5 and 8.1 % for samples blood donors, 17.1 and 25.7 % for HD patients and 5.6 and 16.7 % for HIV-infected samples, respectively.

The false positivity of HCV-Ab by ELISA and RIBA, when compared with RT-PCR, was 5 %, 3.9 % and zero for blood donors, HD patients and HIV-HCV co-infected cases, respectively.

While comparing ELISA with RT-PCR, the false positivity was 10 %, 5.9 % and zero respectively for blood donors, HD patients and HIV-HCV co-infected cases.

Thus, it is very important to screen blood donors, HD patients and HIV-infected patients by using the RT-PCR for HCV-RNA to avoid false negative results.