Combined hepatitis C virus (HCV) antigen-antibody detection assay does not improve diagnosis for seronegative individuals with occult HCV infection

Abstract

A combined hepatitis C virus (HCV) antigen-antibody assay was evaluated for 115 seronegative individuals with occult HCV infection. The assay was reactive in one patient and negative to weakly reactive in three others (all four gave indeterminate results by supplemental assay) but failed to detect HCV in the remaining patients. Despite increased sensitivity the combined assay does not improve serodiagnosis of occult HCV infection. Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.