[Diagnosis of hepatitis E virus infection in sporadic acute hepatitis]

The solid-phase enzyme immunoassay (EIA) was used for detecting anti-HEV immunoglobulin G (IgG) and M (IgM) by using a recombinant chimeric antigen (ORF3-2) from the open reading frame (ORF) 2 and 3 of hepatitis E virus gene. These sera were collected from the patients with sporadic acute viral hepatitis. The positive rate for anti-HEV IgG was 15.22% (7) among 46 patients with acute hepatitis, 5 of the 7 IgG positive sera were also positive (71.4%) for anti-HEV IgM. 91.8% (93) and 76.4% (78) were positive separately for anti-HEV IgG and IgM among 102 patients of suspected HEV infection (these patients were negative for anti-HAV, anti-HBV and anti-HCV), about 2/3 patients of HEV infection detected were simultaneously HEV-IgG and IgM positive. In control group of 98 normal persons, 4 (4.08%) were positive for anti-HEV IgG, but none were IgM positive. Paired sera of the patients in the acute phase and convalescent phase were detected, the titers of anti-HEV IgG with 4-16 fold decrease were seen in 6 cases and with 2-fold rise in 1 case.