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Lancet. 1991 Apr 13;337(8746):912-3.
Confirmation of hepatitis C virus infection by new four-antigen recombinant immunoblot assay.
Van der Poel CL,
Cuypers HT,
Reesink HW,
Weiner AJ,
Quan S,
Di Nello R,
Van Boven JJ,
Winkel I,
Mulder-Folkerts D,
Exel-Oehlers PJ, et al.
Red Cross Blood Bank Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
A new four-antigen recombinant immunoblot assay (4-RIBA) for confirmation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) C-100 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) reactivity was tested in stored serum samples (1984-86) of blood donors and recipients and compared with results from polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis of fresh (1990) plasma samples in donors and recipients from the original study. Of 37 HCV C-100 ELISA-positive blood products, 8 were 4-RIBA positive, of which 7 were implicated in post-transfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis (PT-NANBH) and/or PCR confirmed recipient HCV infection. Of 9 recipients with PT-NANBH, 8 were reactive in 4-RIBA (6 positive and 2 indeterminate). With fresh plasma samples, 3 donors and 6 recipients who were 4-RIBA positive were also PCR positive. 4 4-RIBA indeterminate and 78 4-RIBA negative samples of donors and recipients were PCR negative. Of 6 4-RIBA positive recipients, 5 were PCR positive four to six years later. 1.6% of the 383 recipients became chronically infected with HCV. The new 4-RIBA represents a candidate confirmation test to discriminate between infective and non-infective HCV C-100 ELISA-positive blood donors.
PMID: 1671231 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]