Korean J Blood Transfus.  2000 Dec;11(2):91-97.

Performance of HCV and HIV-1 Nucleic Acid Amplification Test(NAT) in Korean Blood Donors

• Seo DH
• Hwang BG
• Park YS
• Oh YC
• Kim SI

Abstract

BACKGROUND
There is still risk of acquiring HCV and HIV by transfusion due to window phase. Screening for HCV and HIV-1 by nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT) may improve blood safety allowing detection during the preseroconversion window in donors.
METHODS
We investigated NAT usefulness using COBAS AMPLICOR analyzer (Roche). The following sample population were tested:1) 15,552 HCV/HIV-1 seronegative random blood donor samples for HCV and HIV-1 NAT;2) 696 high ALT and 271 HCV EIA positive samples for HCV NAT;3) 1,152 HIV-1 EIA reactive samples for HIV-1 NAT. NAT was performed on pools of 24 donations according to the assay protocol. RESLUTS: Six pools showed initial reactive reactions in HCV NAT and one pool showed initial reactive reaction in HIV-1 NAT. But no donor sample was found repeatedly reactive by this assay.
CONCLUSIONS
Although there were false positive reactions, specificity of the NAT assay was high enough for the assay to be applied as a blood screening test and implementation of this assay is expected to improve blood safety and be useful for blood products use.

Keyword

NAT; Blood screening; COBAS Amplicor

MeSH Terms

Blood Donors*
Blood Safety
False Positive Reactions
HIV
HIV-1*
Humans
Mass Screening
Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques
Sensitivity and Specificity
Tissue Donors