Feasibility of anti-HCV reflex HCV Ag screening strategy in an HCV endemic community
Wei-Ming Chen1, Chih-Yi Lee2, Nien-Tzu Hsu3
1Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan; Department of Health and Nutrition, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan, Taiwan; School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Background/Purpose:
The HCV core antigen (HCV Ag) assay displays high sensitivity and strong correlation with HCV RNA. However, the feasibility of anti-HCV reflex HCV Ag screening in a community-wide setting is rarely discussed.
Methods:
We performed a two-phase community-based hepatitis C screen in an HCV-prone area of central Taiwan. During the training phase, all participants were test for anti-HCV, HCV Ag and HCV RNA to validate sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of HCV Ag. During the validation phase, an anti-HCV reflex HCV Ag screen was conducted based on the results of training phase. Outcomes of the study were presented as positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV).
Results:
Of 935 training phase participants, the rate of positive anti-HCV and HCV Ag were 175 (18.7%) and 78 (8.3%), respectively. Test sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of HCV Ag were 97.1%, 98.6%, and 97.8%, respectively. During validation phase, only anti-HCV-positive serum samples were tested for HCV Ag. Of 1932 participant, 285 (14.8%) were anti-HCV-positive. 133 (46.7%) of the 285 anti-HCV-positive samples were HCV Ag-positive. PPV and NPV were 98.4% and 99.3%, respectively. Across the entire participant sample, a significant linear correlation between HCV Ag and HCV RNA concentration was noted (r2 = 0.93, p-value<0.001) following log-log transformation.
Conclusion:
Anti-HCV reflex HCV Ag screening is a feasible strategy for aiding HCV-prone communities.
