J Clin Pathol Qual Control.  1998 Jun;20(1):289-294.

Estimation of Risk of Posttransfusion Hepatitis C Virus Using Discrepant Results between LG HCD 3.0 and DONG-A HCV(R) 3.0 Enzyme Immunoassay

• Cho YH
• Oh HB
• Hwang YS
• Kim SI

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The investigators tried to estimate posttransfusion hepatitis (PTH) by hepatitis C virus (HCV) using discrepant results between DONG-A HCV(R) 3.0 and LG HCD 3.0 enzyme immunoassay (EIA).
METHODS
Two different methods were applied. At first, 48 samples which were positive in both DONG-A HCV(R) 3.0 and HCV reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were retested by LG HCD 3.0. 12 samples which were positive in both LG HCD 3.0 and HDV RT-PCR were also retested by DONG-A HCV(R) 3.0. Secondly, 1,440 negative samples in LG HCD 3.0 and 900 negative samples in DONG-A HCV(R) were also cross-checked by each other kits.
RESULTS
Among 6 samples with RT-PCR positivity, 10 samples (16.7%) were discrepant. Among 2,340 screen-negative samples, there was no discrepant results. One unit per 4,760 donation was estimated to be infective among anti-HCV screen-negative blood.
CONCLUSIONS
Estimate of the risk of posttransfusion hepatitis C (PTH-C) by one unit per 4,760 donation was much higher than that calculated from the risk of donation in seroconversion window. The presence of discrepancy in samples which had been positive in both RT-PCR and one of two commercial kits implies that further research for HCV variant is required.

MeSH Terms

Hepacivirus*
Hepatitis C*
Hepatitis*
Humans
Immunoenzyme Techniques*
Research Personnel