Open AccessDried blood spot‐based detection of serological profiles of hepatitis B and C infections and their prevalence in Cambodia
Author(s) -
E Bunthen,
Ko Ko,
Nagashima Shintaro,
Ouoba Serge,
Hussain Md Razeen Ashraf,
Sugiyama Aya,
Akita Tomoyuki,
Ohisa Masayuki,
Chuon Channarena,
Mao Bunsoth,
Hossain Md Shafiqul,
Ork Vichit,
Tanaka Junko
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
gastrohep
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1478-1239
DOI - 10.1002/ygh2.468
Subject(s) - hbsag , medicine , hbeag , serology , hepatitis b , hepatitis b virus , immunoassay , dried blood spot , virology , immunology , antibody , virus , biology , genetics
Summary Aims This study aims to examine the diagnostic accuracy of dried blood spot (DBS) samples contrast to serum samples for detection of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) sero‐markers in large scale epidemiological study in the resource limited settings and then to determine the prevalence of each sero‐marker from DBS samples collected during 2017 Cambodia nationwide study. Methods This study included 921 paired DBS and serum samples. HBsAg, HBsAg‐HQ, anti‐HBs, anti‐HBc and anti‐HCV were detected in all DBS/serum pairs but HBeAg and anti‐HBe in 109 DBS/serum pairs using chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay (CLEIA). Thereafter, the individual DBS's diagnostic accuracy was calculated. Additionally, the prevalence of each sero‐marker was calculated in 4541 DBS samples from nationwide study in Cambodia. Results The sensitivity of DBS for detection of HBsAg, HBsAg‐HQ, HBeAg and antiHBe were high (≥90%) with 100% specificity. Anti‐HBc and anti‐HBs showed low sensitivity (70.73% and 69.25% respectively) than other sero‐markers, but their diagnostic accuracies were 94.58% and 89.32%. Therefore, the overall prevalence of HBsAg, HBsAg‐HQ, anti‐HBc, anti‐HBs and anti‐HCV using DBS samples in Cambodia were 2.38%, 2.53%, 14.27%, 31.84% and 0.15%, respectively. HBeAg and anti‐HBe positivity among HBsAg positives were 31.48% and 53.7%. Conclusion Our study indicates that DBS has high diagnostic accuracy for HBsAg, HBsAg‐HQ, HBeAg and anti‐HBe. Having the benefit of simple procedure, easy and compact transportation and storage, it is considered as an alternative to serum samples in examining the serological profiles of HBV infection through a large‐scale epidemiological study in the resource limited settings.