Three manual immunoassays for the rapid detection of hepatitis B surface antigen

We have evaluated 3 commercial test kits for the detection of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) which do not require elaborate instrumentation and are relatively inexpensive. These included the Immunocomb-II (Orgenics, Israel), Austragen latex agglutination (Span, India) and Daina Screen (Abbott, USA) tests. A panel of 98 sera tested by IMx HBsAg assay (Abbott, USA) were used to evaluate the tests. Sensitivities of 96.6%, 86.2% and 96.6%, and specificities of 95.7%, 94.2% and 100%, respectively, were obtained. We therefore recommend the Immunocomb-II or Daina Screen tests for HBsAg detection in small laboratories where facilities to conduct automated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays are not available.