ArticleJournal of the International AIDS Society2017
Clinical utility of HCV core antigen detection and quantification using serum samples and dried blood spots in people who inject drugs in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
Article in Journal of the International AIDS Society, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Diagnostic performance of hepatitis C virus core antigen testing for detecting hepatitis C in people living with hepatitis B: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2024Pooled it
- Diagnostic Performance of the HCV Core Antigen Test To Identify Hepatitis C in HIV-Infected Patients: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2023Pooled it
- Performance of HCV Antigen Testing for the Diagnosis and Monitoring of Antiviral Treatment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.BioMed research international · 2022Pooled it
- Five Years of HCV Dried Blood Spot Testing in At-Risk Populations and the Impact of Reduced Sensitivity on Missed Diagnoses.Liver international : official journal of the International Association for the Study of the Liver · 2026Article
- HIV risk and oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Nairobi: a cross-sectional study.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Hepatitis C Virus-Core Antigen: Implications in Diagnostic, Treatment Monitoring and Clinical Outcomes.Viruses · 2024Review
- Impact of storage time in dried blood samples (DBS) and dried plasma samples (DPS) for point-of-care hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA quantification and HCV core antigen detection.Microbiology spectrum · 2023Article
- Modelling the impact of HIV and HCV prevention and treatment interventions for people who inject drugs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2021Article
- Elimination of Viral Hepatitis in Low and Middle-Income Countries: Epidemiological Research Gaps.Current epidemiology reports · 2021Article
- Evaluation of Hepatitis C Virus Core Antigen Assay in a Resource-Limited Setting in Pakistan.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Analytical validation of hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) using dried blood spots (DBS).Journal of viral hepatitis · 2021Article
- Diverse HCV Strains And HIV URFS Identified Amongst People Who Inject Drugs In India.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- In-field evaluation of Xpert® HCV viral load Fingerstick assay in people who inject drugs in Tanzania.Liver international : official journal of the International Association for the Study of the Liver · 2020Article
- Article
- Dried Blood Spot Tests for the Diagnosis and Therapeutic Monitoring of HIV and Viral Hepatitis B and C.Frontiers in microbiology · 2020Review
- Hepatitis C Core-Antigen Testing from Dried Blood Spots.Viruses · 2019Article
- Confirmation of HCV viremia using HCV RNA and core antigen testing on dried blood spot in HIV infected peoples who inject drugs in Vietnam.BMC infectious diseases · 2018Article
- The hepatitis C cascade of care in people who inject drugs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Journal of viral hepatitis · 2018Article
- Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Tanzania: Current Status and Challenges.Journal of tropical medicine · 2018Review
- Aiming at the Global Elimination of Viral Hepatitis: Challenges Along the Care Continuum.Open forum infectious diseases · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionA lack of access to hepatitis C virus (HCV) diagnostics is a significant barrier to achieving the World Health Organization 2030 global elimination goal. HCV core antigen (HCVcAg) quantification and dried blood spot (DBS) are appealing alternatives to conventional HCV serology and nucleic acid testing (NAT) for resource-constraint settings, particularly in difficult-to-reach populations. We assessed the accuracy of serum and DBS HCVcAg testing in people who inject drugs in Tanzania using HCV NAT as a reference.
methodBetween May and July 2015, consecutive HCV-seropositive patients enrolled in the local opioid substitution treatment centre were invited to participate in the study. All had HCV RNA detection (Roche Molecular Systems, Pleasanton, CA, USA), genotyping (NS5B gene phylogenetic analysis) and HCVcAg on blood samples and DBS (Architect assay; Abbott Diagnostics, Chicago, IL, USA).
resultsOut of 153 HCV-seropositive individuals, 65 (42.5%) and 15 (9.8%) were co-infected with HIV (41 (63%) were on anti-retroviral therapy (ARVs)) and hepatitis B respectively. In total, 116 were viraemic, median viral load of 5.7 (Interquartile range (IQR); 4.0-6.3) log iU/ml (75 (68.2%) were genotype 1a, 35 (31.8%) genotype 4a). The median alanine transaminase (ALT) (iU/l), aspartate transaminase (AST) (iU/l) and gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) (iU/l) were 35 (IQR; 23-51), 46 (32-57) and 69 (35-151) respectively. For the quantification of HCV RNA, serum HCVcAg had a sensitivity at 99.1% and a specificity at 94.1%, with an area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC) at 0.99 (95% CI 0.98-1.00). DBS HCVcAg had a sensitivity of 76.1% and a specificity of 97.3%, with an AUROC of 0.87 (95% CI 0.83-0.92). HCVcAg performance did not differ by HIV co-infection or HCV genotype.
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