Njouom Richard, Tejiokem Mathurin Cyrille, Zanga Marie Claire Endegue, Pouillot Régis, Ayouba Ahidjo, Pasquier Christophe, Nerrienet Eric
Laboratoire de virologie, Centre Pasteur du Cameroun, Yaounde, Cameroon.
J Virol Methods. 2006 May;133(2):223-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2005.11.001. Epub 2005 Dec 19.
Conventional tests for antibody to Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HCV RNA require considerable time before results are available, remain very expensive and are not adapted to many sub-Saharan African countries where HCV is endemic. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of an algorithm consisting of two HCV rapid tests to diagnose and predict HCV viremia in patients in Cameroon. Three hundred and twenty nine plasma samples were screened by two HCV rapid tests (ImmunoComb II HCV, PBS Orgenics and Hexagon HCV, Human). Previous evaluation of these samples for HCV antibodies (anti-HCV) by conventional third generation ELISA, considered as a reference test, indicated that 168 were anti-HCV negative and 161 positive. Among the 161 anti-HCV positive plasma, 114 (71%) were HCV RNA-positive by RT-PCR assay. The ImmunoComb II HCV test provided the more sensitive detection of anti-HCV (sensitivity: 99.4% with a 95% CI = 96-100%). Surprisingly, the second HCV rapid test, Hexagon HCV, showed a high capacity to identify non-viremic subjects amongst anti-HCV positive cases (93.6% [95% CI: 82-99%]). These results suggest an algorithm using ImmunoComb II HCV as a first test to screen anti-HCV positive subjects, and Hexagon HCV as a second test to discriminate between viremic and non-viremic HCV seropositive subjects.
丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）抗体和HCV RNA的传统检测需要相当长的时间才能得出结果，费用仍然很高，而且不适用于许多HCV流行的撒哈拉以南非洲国家。本研究的目的是评估一种由两种HCV快速检测组成的算法在喀麦隆患者中诊断和预测HCV病毒血症的准确性。通过两种HCV快速检测（ImmunoComb II HCV，PBS Orgenics和Hexagon HCV，Human）对329份血浆样本进行了筛查。以前通过传统的第三代ELISA对这些样本进行HCV抗体（抗HCV）评估，该评估被视为参考检测，结果表明168份样本抗HCV阴性，161份样本抗HCV阳性。在161份抗HCV阳性血浆中，114份（71%）通过逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）检测为HCV RNA阳性。ImmunoComb II HCV检测在抗HCV检测方面更为灵敏（灵敏度：99.4%，95%置信区间=96-100%）。令人惊讶的是，第二种HCV快速检测Hexagon HCV在抗HCV阳性病例中识别非病毒血症患者的能力很强（93.6%[95%置信区间：82-99%]）。这些结果表明，一种算法可使用ImmunoComb II HCV作为第一项检测来筛查抗HCV阳性受试者，使用Hexagon HCV作为第二项检测来区分病毒血症和非病毒血症的HCV血清阳性受试者。
