Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 16, 2026
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction-Based Detection and Quantification of Hepatitis B Virus DNA
Published on: December 15, 2023
Screening of serologically negative plasma pools for hepatitis C virus by nucleic acid amplification testing in
Dubravko Forcić1, Renata Zgorelec, Tanja Kosutić-Gulija
1Molecular Biomedicine Unit, Department of Research and Development, Institute of Immunology Inc., Rockefellerova 10, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia. dforcic@imz.hr
A residual risk of HCV infection by different blood products exists due to blood donations collected during the serological window period in the early stages of infection. The aim of this study is nucleic acid amplification technique (NAT)-based screening of the anti-HCV negative plasma pools obtained from various Croatian transfusion centres between 2001 and 2003 for HCV RNA. During this period 2647 anti-HCV negative plasma pools were tested by NAT and 12 (0.45%) HCV RNA positive pools were detected. In comparison to the results of our previous study [Forcić D, Zgorelec R, Branović K, Kosutić-Gulija T, Santak M, Mazuran R. Incidence of hepatitis C virus RNA in anti-HCV negative plasma pools in Croatia. Transfus Apher Sci 2001;24:269-78], a remarkable decrease in the number of positive plasma pools (from 2.1% to 0.45%) was demonstrated.
A residual risk of HCV infection by different blood products exists due to blood donations collected during the serological window period in the early stages of infection. The aim of this study is nucleic acid amplification technique (NAT)-based screening of the anti-HCV negative plasma pools obtained from various Croatian transfusion centres between 2001 and 2003 for HCV RNA. During this period 2647 anti-HCV negative plasma pools were tested by NAT and 12 (0.45%) HCV RNA positive pools were detected. In comparison to the results of our previous study [Forcić D, Zgorelec R, Branović K, Kosutić-Gulija T, Santak M, Mazuran R. Incidence of hepatitis C virus RNA in anti-HCV negative plasma pools in Croatia. Transfus Apher Sci 2001;24:269-78], a remarkable decrease in the number of positive plasma pools (from 2.1% to 0.45%) was demonstrated.
