Premium
Hepatitis B surface antigen confirmatory testing for diagnosis of hepatitis b virus infection in Taiwan
Author(s) -
Chu FangYeh,
Su FuHsiung,
Cheng ShuHsing,
Lin YuShiang,
Li ChungYi,
Chien ChihChing,
Lin YuCheng,
Chiang ShuoYa
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.22127
Subject(s) - hbsag , medicine , hepatitis b virus , hepatitis b , antibody , immunology , antigen , virology , hepatitis , virus
This study aimed to examine the application of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) confirmatory testing when diagnosing hepatitis B infection among young persons in Taiwan with a low prevalence rate of hepatitis B infection. HBsAg status, the presence of antibodies against HBsAg (anti‐HBs), and the presence of antibodies against hepatitis B core antigen (anti‐HBc) were compared among 403 graduate students (mean age 22.8 ± 0.7 years) and 1,745 undergraduate students (18.6 ± 1.0 years) from one university, and 367 adult subjects (41.1 ± 15.8 years) in 2008. Any HBsAg‐positive subjects were tested with an HBsAg confirmatory test. Chi‐square tests for trend and predictive values of positivity (PVP) when using HBsAg‐positive only for determining confirmed cases of hepatitis B infection were compared across the three cohorts. The prevalence of HBsAg positivity among subjects decreased from 16.3% in the adults to 5.2% in the graduate students and then to 2.8% for the undergraduate students ( P = 0.0007). The PVP of HBsAg testing when determining cases of hepatitis B decreased from 0.97 for the adults to 0.81 for the graduate students and then to 0.56 for the undergraduate students ( P < 0.0001). Thus, a significant decrease in the true‐positive rate of HBsAg among the students born after the introduction of hepatitis B vaccination was observed only when HBsAg testing was applied. Additional neutralization tests may therefore become mandatory for persons with a positive HBsAg test result who were born after the commencement of the universal neonatal hepatitis B vaccination program in Taiwan. J. Med. Virol. 83:1514–1521, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.