Discrimination between acute hepatitis B and acute exacerbations of chronic hepatitis B by measurement of IgM class antibody to hepatitis B core antigen by CLIA method

Abstract

To determine the diagnostics value of IgM class antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc IgM) among patients with acute hepatitis B (AH-B) and acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis B (CH-Be), the sera from 53 patients with known AH-B and 60 patients with known CH-Be were studied for anti-HBc IgM by Chemiluminescent Immunoassay (CLIA). The anti-HBc IgM titer level greater than 10.0 S/CO was 92% in AH-B and 7% in CH-Be, with better accuracy 93% (105/113) comparing to qualitative cutoff level's accuracy 68% (77/113). As a consequence, only using just "positive" or "negative" results of anti-HBc IgM detection is not enough to distinguish both AH-B and CH-Be. According to the results from the study, we found that it is useful for differentiating between AH-B and CH-Be, with the titer of anti-HBc IgM greater than or below 10.0 S/CO. © 2006 The Japan Society of Hepatology.