Concordance of Tests to Detect Antibodies to Hepatitis C Virus

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A large variety of new assays are available to test for antibodies to hepatitis C virus. We investigated the concordance of two FDA-licensed screening assays and determined their specificities in relation to two supplemental tests, Abbott’s neutralization assay and Ortho’s second generation RIBA-2. Of 573 serum samples from individuals at high risk for sexually transmitted diseases, 81 (14.1%) were repeatedly reactive by both screening tests and produced positive results by both supplemental assays, while 480 (83.8%) samples were nonreactive. Ten of the positive samples were reactive by the RIBA-2 assay to at least two antigens other than cl00-3, and were neutralized (88% to 100%) by Abbott’s supplemental assay. Twelve samples produced discrepant results, including one false-negative and 10 false-positive screening test results.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: