1. Differential reactivity of anti-hepatitis C virus screening assays in patients with waning antibodies
- Author
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Giuseppe Portella, Gaetano Lauritano, Antonio Di Biase, Claudia Mazzarella, Umberto Braschi, Luca Vallefuoco, Caterina Rocco, Saverio Misso, Rosanna Sorrentino, Mazzarella, C., Rocco, C., Vallefuoco, L., Sorrentino, R., Braschi, Umberto, Lauritano, G., Di Biase, A., Misso, S., and Portella, G.
- Subjects
anti-HCV waning antibodie ,biology ,business.industry ,virus diseases ,Anti hepatitis c virus ,anti-HCV screening assay ,Virology ,digestive system diseases ,HCV infection ,HCV confirmatory assay ,biology.protein ,Medicine ,Reactivity (chemistry) ,In patient ,Antibody ,business - Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) leads to persistent infection. Viral clearance can be obtained through pharmacological treatment or spontaneously. After viral clearance, anti-HCV antibodies (Abs) slowly decline and finally disappear. Subjects with a resolved HCV infection are reactive to anti-HCV screening assays for a long time. These subjects pose a diagnostic challenge, and therefore, a more accurate interpretation of laboratory tests is needed for cases with resolved HCV infection. However, the performances of anti-HCV screening assays against declining anti-HCV Abs have not been assessed. Here we evaluated 1509 samples with different screening assays. Screening assays provided discrepant results in patients with waning Abs. The identification of signal-to-cut-off values indicative of waning Abs for each anti-HCV assay could avoid unnecessary confirmatory tests and reduce the impact of misdiagnosis.
- Published
- 2019
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