Laboratory Testing for Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C: Serologic Assays

April 2008

The serologic tests that I mentioned earlier have good sensitivity of greater than 95% but they lack specificity which is usually in the range of 90-95% bearing in mind that the HCV antibodies may not be detectable in the blood until 2-3 months after infection.

The commercially available assays defer in HCV viral antigen use in making these commercial tests and they provide qualitative results based on a signal to cutoff ratio in the given specimen.

Once the screening test results are positive, one can confirm the presence of HCV Antibody by requesting a recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) which use specific HCV viral antigens to detect specific bands and provide a qualitative result.

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Serologic Assays

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Jump to section:

• Introduction
• Patient Case
• Hepatitis C: Diagnostic Approach
• Acute Hepatitis C with Recovery
• Acute Hepatitis C with Progression to Chronic Infection
• Hepatitis C: Serologic Assays
• HCV Antigens Used in EIAs and CIAs for Detecting HCV Total Antibodies
• Patient Case
• Laboratory Algorithm
• Comparison of PCR, TMA, and bDNA
• Hepatitis C: Molecular Assays
• Hepatitis C: Molecular Tests
• Interpretation of Laboratory Test Results for HCV Infection
• Patient Case
• Hepatitis C: Genotyping Assays
• Patient Case
• Questions?