Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Diagnosis of hepatitis C virus infection using two second-generation enzyme immunoassays with a recombinant immunoblot assay for confirmation

  • Article
  • Published:
European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A total of 1,016 serum samples from patients with either non-A, non-B hepatitis or risk factors for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were examined in two second-generation enzyme immunoassays (EIAs), the UBI HCV EIA (Organon Teknika, The Netherlands) and the Wellcozyme anti-HCV (Murex Diagnostics, UK), for detection of antibodies to HCV. An immunoblot assay that uses four recombinant antigens, the 4-RIBA (Chiron, USA), was used as a confirmatory assay. Of the 1,016 samples, 195 (19.2 %) were reactive in both EIAs, while ten yielded discrepant results. One hundred eighty of the 195 (92 %) positive reactions were confirmed in the 4-RIBA; 13 sera yielded an indeterminate result and two were negative. None of the sera with discrepant results reacted positively in the confirmatory test, while two sera showed an indeterminate pattern. In contrast to the screening of antibodies to HCV among blood donors, confirmatory testing of antibodies to HCV with the 4-RIBA seems to have limited added value in the diagnostic examination of clinical samples from patients with suspected HCV infection.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kuo G, Choo Q-L, Alter HJ, Gitnick GL, Redeker AG, Purcell RH, Miyamura T, Dienstag JL, Alter MJ, Stevens CE, Tegtmeier GE, Bonino F, Colombo M, Lee W-S, Kuo C, Berger K, Shuster JR, Overby LR, Bradley DW, Houghton M An assay for circulating antibodies for a major etiologic virus of human non-A, non-B hepatitis. Science 1989, 244: 362–364.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Bortolotti F, Tagger A, Cadrobbi P, Crivellaro C, Pregliasco F, Ribero ML, Alberti A Antibodies to hepatitis C virus in community-acquired acute non-A, non-B hepatitis. Journal of Hepatology 1991, 12: 176–180.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Alter MJ, Hadler SC, Judson FN, Mares A, Alexander WJ, Hu PY, Miller JK, Moyer LA, Fields HO, Bradley DW, Margolis HS Risk factors for acute non-A, non-B hepatitis in the United States and association with hepatitis C virus infection. Journal of the American Medical Association 1990, 264: 2231–2235.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Choo QL, Kuo G, Weiner AJ, Overby LR, Bradley DW, Houghton M Isolation of a cDNA clone derived from a blood-borne non-A, non-B viral hepatitis genome. Science 1989, 224: 359–361.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Esteban JI, Gonzales A, Hernandez JM, Viladomiu L, Sanches C, Lopez-Talavera JC, Lucea D, Martin-Vega C, Vidal X, Esteban R, Guardia J Evaluation of antibodies to hepatitis C virus in a study of transfusion-associated hepatitis. New England Journal of Medicine 1990, 323: 1107–1112.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Van Der Poel CL, Reesink HW, Schaasberg W, Leentvaar-Kuypers A, Bakker E, Exel-Oehlers PJ, Lelie PN Infectivity of blood seropositive for hepatitis C virus antibodies. Lancet 1990, 335: 558–560.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Van Der Poel CL, Cuypers HTM, Reesink HW, Weiner AJ, Quan S, DiNello R, Van Boven JJP, Winkel L, Mulder-Folkeris D, Exel-Oehlers PJ, Schaasberg W, Leentvaar-Kuypers A, Polito A, Houghton M, Lelie PN Confirmation of hepatitis C virus infection by new four-antigen recombinant immunoblot assay. Lancet 1991, 337: 317–319.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Aach RD, Stevens CB, Hollinger FB, Mosley JW, Peterson DA, Taylor PE, Johnson RG, Barbosa LH, Nemo GJ Hepatitis C virus infection in post-transfusion hepatitis. New England Journal of Medicine 1991, 325: 1325–1329.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Hosein B, Fang CT, Popovsky MA, Ye J, Zhang M, Wang CY Improved serodiagnosis of hepatitis C virus infection with synthetic peptide antigen from capsid protein. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 1991, 88: 3647–3651.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Katayama T, Mazda T, Kikuchi S, Harada S, Matsuura Y, Chiba J, Ohba H, Saito I, Miyamura T Improved serodiagnosis of non-A, non-B hepatitis by an assay detecting antibody to hepatitis C virus core antigen. Hepatology 1992, 15: 391–394.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Cuypers HTM, Bresters D, Winkel IN, Reesink HW, Weiner AJ, Houghton M, Van Der Poel CL, Lelie PN Storage conditions of blood samples and primer selection affect the yield of c DNA polymerase chain reaction products of hepatitis C virus. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 1992, 30: 3220–3224.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Alter MJ, Margolis HS, Krawczynski K, Judson FN, Mares A, Alexander WJ, Hu PY, Miller JR, Gerber MA, Sampliner RE, Meeks EL, Beach MJ The natural history of community-acquired hepatitis C in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine 1992, 327: 1899–1905.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Virology, National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection, PO Box 1, 3720 BA, Bilthoven, The Netherlands

    P. Schneeberger, H. van der Nat, W. van Dijk & A. van Loon

  2. Department of Medical Microbiology, Slotervaart Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    W. van Dijk

Authors
  1. P. Schneeberger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. H. van der Nat
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. W. van Dijk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. A. van Loon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Schneeberger, P., van der Nat, H., van Dijk, W. et al. Diagnosis of hepatitis C virus infection using two second-generation enzyme immunoassays with a recombinant immunoblot assay for confirmation. Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 13, 118–121 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01982183

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01982183

Keywords

Search

Navigation