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A Comparative Evaluation of the Sensitivity of Seven Anti‐Hepatitis C Virus Screening Tests
Author(s) -
Couroucé AnneMarie,
Barin Francis,
Botté Christine,
Lunel Françoise,
Maisonneuve Pascale,
Maniez Michèle,
Trepo Christian
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
vox sanguinis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.68
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1423-0410
pISSN - 0042-9007
DOI - 10.1111/j.1423-0410.1995.tb02597.x
Subject(s) - medicine , virology , hepatitis c virus , antibody , ns3 , flaviviridae , virus , immunology , antigen , hepatitis c
The sensitivity of the most recent generation of anti‐hepatitis C virus (anti‐HCV) screening tests from seven manufacturers was evaluated with a common panel of 530 specimens from 320 HCV‐infected subjects. This panel included 221 samples from 57 seroconverters (53 pre‐sero conversion negative specimens and 168 positive samples) and 309 selected specimens from 263 other HCV‐infected patients of which 19% exhibited NS3 or core reactivity alone with the presence of HCV‐RNA assessed by PCR. None of the seven screening tests detected all infectious and antibody‐positive specimens. However, important differences were observed between these assays in the number of false‐negative results, which seemed mainly due to nonreactivity of antibody to the NS3 antigen.