COMPARISON OF GENOTYPING AND SEROTYPING METHODS FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS TYPES

The usefulness of identification of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype h as recently been investigated for the clinical management of patients infected by HCV. In the present study, the HCV genotype infecting 127 patients was determined by two different methods: HCV genotyping using a dot-blot assay with type-specific probes derived from the 5'-UTR of HCV genome and HCV serotyping using an ELISA system in which type-spe cific antibodies against the NS4 region were detected. Overall, a good correlation of the two methods was observed, the main discrepancy bei ng 4 patients with sequence-confirmed HCV-2 (2 cases) and HCV-3 (2 cas es) genotypes recognized as HCV-1 by serotyping. Mixed infections were not detected by either method. In 19 PCR negative sera, in which the HCV genotype could not be evaluated, no particular serotype profile wa s observed. In conclusion, the molecular and serological techniques ar e almost equivalent in determining the viral type, although in individ ual cases, especially in PCR negative patients, the clinical meaning o f the serotyping result remains to be determined.