engleski

News in Diagnosis of Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Natural history of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is not well elucidated. The main reason for that is the fact that the very beginning of HCV infection is extremely difficult to determine because only about 10-15% of infected develop clinically manifested illness and a vast majority of those with chronic infection are completely asymptomatic or with minimal nonspecific symptoms. Despite high sensitivity of contemporary procedures for antibody detection (anti-HCV) there are some situations when this antibody is not possible to detect: early phase of acute infection (during pre-seroconversion period, &#8220 ; window&#8221 ; period), different cases of immunodeficiencies (innate and especially acquired) and rare examples of acute or chronic HCV infection where anti-HCV remain negative. Recently introduced method for detection of free HCVAg could help especially among members of high risk groups for HCV infection who are regularly tested for HCV infection (IV drug users, haemodialysis patients). The aim of this study was to determine free HCVAg and to follow up its level in individuals recently infected with HCV. We used Antibody to Hepatitis C Core Antigen ELISA test System for detecting free HCVAg. Among total of 502 blood samples we found 7 positive for HCVAg distributed among IV drug users, haemodialysis patients and acute NANBNC hepatitis. In conclusion we can say that HCVAg could be of great help in determining acute HCV infection in situation when such infection is highly expected. Following its dynamics it could be possible to establish relative precise date of acquisition of HCV infection, which could in turn enable better study of natural history and better insight into the outcome during the early period of HCV infection.

HCV infection; HCVAg

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