Reversed Haemagglutination Test for the Detection of Hepatitis B Antigen

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Abstract
The results of a multi‐centre trial of a simple reversed haemagglutination (rHA) technique for hepatitis B antigen (HB Ag) screening are presented. rHA was compared with counter‐immunoelectrophoresis (CEP), immunodiffusion (ID) and micro‐complement fixation (CF). Radioimmunoassay (RIA) was used as a reference test.In a group of serum panels consisting of 3,700 samples, rHA was generally found more sensitive than CEP and ID, and about as sensitive as CF. In terms of specificity, rHA was found to be equal to CEP and CF and less specific than ID. An absorption procedure proved to eliminate practically all false positives. In a second phase, 41,355 samples from blood donors were tested. On the average, the sensitivity of rHA was superior to that of CEP. rHA detected, with a high degree of specificity, about 40% more positive samples than CEP.These results allow the conclusion that rHA is very suitable for mass HB Ag screening of blood donors.