CAN RISK FACTOR SCREENING PREDICT HEPATITIS-C ANTIBODY REACTIVITY

The object of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Hepatiti s C virus (HCV) by second-generation testing and to determine the effe ctiveness of risk factor-guided screening. We performed a prospective study of HCV exposure determined by second-generation enzyme-linked im munoadsorbent assay (ELISA) and confirmed by radioimmunoblot assay (RI BA). Risk factors (RF) were interpreted by univariate and multivariate analyses. Eight hundred eighty-six consecutive patients were tested f or HCV over a 1-year period; 34 women tested positive for HCV and 32 w ere confirmed by RIBA (prevalence 3.6%). Forty-nine percent of women h ad at least one RF. Age, intravenous drug use, history of hepatitis st rongly correlated with HCV (p <0.001). RF screening had a sensitivity of 81%. Twenty-one percent of women with HCV had no RF. The absence of any RF had a negative predictive value of 98.7%. RF screening is effe ctive in identifying patients at low risk for HCV.