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Comparison between three quantitative assays in patients with chronic hepatitis C and their relevance in the prediction of response to therapy
Author(s) -
Pierre Pradat,
P. Chossegros,
François Bailly,
Patrizia Pontisso,
Giorgio Maria Saracco,
Sílvia Sauleda,
Mark Thursz,
Hans L. Tillmann,
H Vlassopoulou,
Alfredo Alberti,
Jean Henrik Braconier,
Juan Ignacio Esteban,
Stephanos J. Hadziyannis,
Michael P. Manns,
M. Rizzetto,
Howard Thomas,
C. Trépo
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of viral hepatitis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.329
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1365-2893
pISSN - 1352-0504
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2893.2000.00224.x
Subject(s) - chronic hepatitis , clinical significance , medicine , relevance (law) , computational biology , immunology , biology , virus , political science , law
To compare three quantitative assays measuring viral load in patients with chronic hepatitis C and to determine their value in predicting response to interferon (IFN) therapy, we analysed serum from 896 patients from eight European Centres using QUANTIPLEX ™ bDNA, MONITOR AMPLICOR ™ and SUPERQUANT ™ assays. Analyses were performed on the same sample. Viral genotype was assessed using INNO‐LiPA HCV II kits. Intercentre variations were observed that were related to the handling of specimens not processed and stored within 6 h of blood sampling. Among sera with optimal handling, a stronger correlation was observed between bDNA and SUPERQUANT (0.806) than between bDNA and MONITOR (0.677) and between MONITOR and SUPERQUANT (0.632). These discrepancies were greatest with genotype 2 (bDNA/SUPERQUANT= 0.772; bDNA/MONITOR=0.456; SUPERQUANT/MONITOR= 0.299). This correlation was influenced by viraemia level and was better at lower viral loads. The proportion of sera with undetectable viral load was 15% with bDNA, 9.7% with MONITOR and 7.7% with SUPERQUANT. For the three measurements, the best cut‐offs of sustained response to IFN treatment were located at their detection threshold. Among patients with viral load below the detection level, a sustained response was observed in 35% tested with bDNA, 38% with MONITOR and 80% with SUPERQUANT. Hence a stronger correlation was observed between bDNA and SUPERQUANT than between either of these assays and MONITOR. SUPERQUANT was the most sensitive assay and this greater sensitivity was associated with a better predictive value of treatment response.