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A multicentre assessment of the specificity of ten anti‐HBc screening tests
Author(s) -
Hughes W.,
Barr A.,
Dow B. C.,
Follett E. A. C.,
Barbara J. A. J.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
transfusion medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.471
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1365-3148
pISSN - 0958-7578
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3148.1995.tb00232.x
Subject(s) - medicine
SUMMARY. Samples from 1828 donations were screened for anti‐HBc at seven sites in the UK using kits supplied by 10 manufacturers. Only 10 (0.55%) donations were considered to have true anti‐HBc reactivity and these were detected by all 10 kits. Additional markers of HBV infection were found in nine of these 10 donations. Additional reactives were found by all kits, the number ranging from 1 to 43. In the four more specific kits, the 10 true reactives were clearly distinguished from the ‘false reactives’ by the strength of the reaction. It is concluded that the reliance on a single ELISA test for anti‐HBc diagnosis is unwise. The use of a second test known to be more specific than the screening ELISA is recommended.