Abdelrazik Abeer Mohamed, Abozaid Hanan Elsayed, Montasser Karim Abdelfattah
Clinical Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Fayoum, Egypt.
Clinical Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Helwan, Egypt.
Transfus Apher Sci. 2018 Aug;57(4):566-568. doi: 10.1016/j.transci.2018.06.006. Epub 2018 Jun 30.
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of hepatitis C virus [HCV] core Ag as an alternative affordable test in resource limited countries blood banks.
Implementing nucleic acid testing in developing countries with low resources is still unaffordable. Egypt has the highest prevalence of hepatitis C in the world and still in need to efficient affordable transfusion program that reduces the window period for the virus before implementing the complex high cost NAT.
HCV core Ag by ELISA in serum, in the presence or absence of anti-HCV antibodies was compared to HCV- RNA by PCR on total number of 1850 first time and repeat donations from Fayoum University Hospital and Badr University Hospital.
Among 1850 healthy voluntary donors, 143 donors with anti-HCV antibody positivity, 105 were determined as positive, 38 were negative for HCV core Ag, and 107 were positive for HCV RNA.
Hepatitis C virus core antigen-ELISA can be a useful alternative in the developing nations and Greater consideration should be given to its implementation as an additional serological test for blood donors in Egypt as the most cost-effective measure for further improvement of transfusion safety.
本研究的目的是评估丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）核心抗原作为资源有限国家血库中一种经济实惠的替代检测方法的有效性。
在资源匮乏的发展中国家实施核酸检测仍然难以承受。埃及是世界上丙型肝炎患病率最高的国家，仍需要高效且经济实惠的输血计划，以在实施复杂且成本高昂的核酸检测之前缩短病毒的窗口期。
通过酶联免疫吸附测定法（ELISA）检测血清中的HCV核心抗原，在有或没有抗HCV抗体的情况下，将其与通过聚合酶链反应（PCR）检测的HCV-RNA进行比较，样本来自法尤姆大学医院和巴德尔大学医院的1850份首次和重复献血。
在1850名健康自愿献血者中，143名抗HCV抗体呈阳性，其中105名被确定为阳性，38名HCV核心抗原为阴性，107名HCV RNA为阳性。
丙型肝炎病毒核心抗原酶联免疫吸附测定法在发展中国家可能是一种有用的替代方法，并且应更多地考虑将其作为埃及献血者的一项额外血清学检测方法加以实施，这是进一步提高输血安全性的最具成本效益的措施。
