Evaluation of enzyme immunoassay for anti-HBc IgM in the diagnosis of acute hepatitis B virus infection.

Corzyme-MTM (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, IL), a newly introduced kit for the measurement of serum IgM antihepatitis B core antigen by enzyme immunoassay, was evaluated for the diagnosis of acute B-viral hepatitis (AVH-B). The study included 175 acute viral hepatitis patients with transient hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Sera from 160 were tested on multiple occasions until their HBsAg cleared. IgM anti-HBc was found in 171 of 175 patients (98.4%) during the acute phase. The serum samples from 42 patients with liver biopsy-proven chronic active hepatitis, type B (CAH-B), and 18 patients with persistent hepatitis, type B (PH-B), were analyzed for the presence of IgM anti-HBc, using the same technic. None of the sera from 42 patients with CAH-B and only 2 of the 18 patients with PHB had IgM anti-HBc. Thus, the measuring IgM anti-HBc using Corzyme-M kit is helpful in the diagnosis of AVH-B and in the discrimination of acute from chronic HBV infections.