DETECTION OF ANTI-HEPATITIS C VIRUS-ANTIBODIES IN PATIENTS UNDERGOINGDIALYSIS BY UTILIZING A HEPATITIS-C VIRUS-3.0 ASSAY - CORRELATION WITH HEPATITIS-C VIRUS-RNA

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is endemic in long-term dialysis uni ts. We assessed the performance of a recently developed HCV 3.0 assay for the detection of HCV antibodies in patients undergoing dialysis, T he study evaluated 128 patients undergoing long-term maintenance hemod ialysis. Anti-HCV was detected by 2.0 and 3.0 enzyme immunoassay (EIA) . Results were confirmed with recombinant immunoblot assays (RIBA(TM) 2.0 and RIBA(TM) 3.0). HCV RNA was detected by using reverse transcrip tase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Thirty-two patients (25%) wer e HCV EIA 2.0 positive. Of these, 1 was RIBA(TM) 2.0 negative (PCR pos itive), 3 were indeterminate (3 PCR positive), and 28 were positive (2 3 PCR positive). Thirty-five (27%) were HCV EIA 3.0 positive. One was RIBA(TM) 3.0 negative (PCR positive), 1 was indeterminate (c33c, PCR p ositive), and 33 were positive (27 PCR positive) by RIBA(TM) 3.0. Thus only 1 PCR-positive patient was negative with RIBA(TM) 2.0 and 3.0 as says. Two of the 3 RIBA(TM) 2.0 indeterminate samples were positive wi th RIBA(TM) 3.0. One remained indeterminate but was HCV RNA positive. In summary, HCV 3.0 EIA detected 4 additional viremic patients but was positive in 6 PCR-negative subjects. A high correlation of the presen ce of antibody to c33c with HCV RNA (28 of 34, 82%) was found, and it was found in all anti-HCV positive samples and in 1 indeterminate samp le. We conclude that the HCV EIA 3.0 test with the supplemental confir matory RIBA(TM) 3.0 test may improve the sensitivity for the detection of anti-HCV. Nevertheless, in potentially immunocompromised patients undergoing dialysis, PCR continues to be the only reliable test for de tecting viremia.