1. Anti-HCV antibody titer highly predicts HCV viremia in patients with hepatitis B virus dual-infection.
- Author
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Liu HY, Lin YH, Lin PJ, Tsai PC, Liu SF, Huang YC, Tsai JJ, Huang CI, Yeh ML, Liang PC, Lin ZY, Dai CY, Huang JF, Chuang WL, Huang CF, and Yu ML
- Subjects
- Aged, Female, Hepacivirus isolation & purification, Hepacivirus pathogenicity, Hepatitis B genetics, Hepatitis B pathology, Hepatitis B virus pathogenicity, Hepatitis C pathology, Hepatitis C virology, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Predictive Value of Tests, RNA, Viral, Serologic Tests, Hepatitis B blood, Hepatitis B virus isolation & purification, Hepatitis C blood, Hepatitis C Antibodies blood
- Abstract
Background/aims: Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection is diagnosed by the presence of antibody to HCV and/or HCV RNA. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of anti-HCV titer (S/CO ratio) in predicting HCV viremia in patients with or without hepatitis B virus (HBV) dual infection., Methods: Anti-HCV seropositive patients who were treatment-naïve consecutively enrolled. Anti-HCV antibodies were detected using a commercially chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay. HCV RNA was detected by real-time PCR method., Results: A total of 1321 including1196 mono-infected and 125 HBV dually infected patients were analyzed. The best cut-off value of anti-HCV titer in predicting HCV viremia was 9.95 (AUROC 0.99, P<0.0001). Of the entire cohort, the anti-HCV cut-off value of 10 provided the best accuracy, 96.8%, with the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of 96.3%, 98.9%, 99.7% and 87.3% respectively. The best cut-off value of anti-HCV titer in predicting HCV viremia was 9.95 (AUROC 0.99, P<0.0001) and 9.36 (AUROC 1.00, P<0.0001) in patients with HCV mono-infection and HBV dual-infection respectively. Among the HBV dually infected patients, the accuracy of anti-HCV titer in predicting HCV viremia reached up to 100% with the cut-off value of 9. All the patients were HCV-viremic if their anti-HCV titer was greater than 9 (PPV 100%). On the other hand, all the patients were HCV non-viremic if their anti-HCV titer was less than 9 (NPV 100%)., Conclusions: Anti-HCV titer strongly predicted HCV viremia. This excellent performance could be generalized to either HCV mono-infected or HBV dually infected patients., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
- Published
- 2021
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