ArticleClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2020
Very Low Hepatitis C Viral Loads in Treatment-naive Persons: Do They Compromise Hepatitis C Virus Antigen Testing?
Article in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- 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
- Comprehensive Evaluation of the Elecsys HCV Duo Immunoassay for Active Hepatitis C Detection: Insights From the DEPCDUO Study.Journal of medical virology · 2026Article
- A fully automated, ultrasensitive luminescence cascade sensor to address hepatitis C diagnostic disparity.Innovation (Cambridge (Mass.)) · 2025Article
- Reducing hepatitis C diagnostic disparities with a fully automated deep learning-enabled microfluidic system for HCV antigen detection.Science advances · 2025Article
- 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
- Performance of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Core Antigen Assay in the Diagnosis of Recently Acquired HCV Infection among High-Risk Populations.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Article
- Article
- Hepatitis C Core Antigen Testing: Still an Effective Diagnostic Method for Global Elimination of Hepatitis C.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2020Article
- Hepatitis C Core-Antigen Testing from Dried Blood Spots.Viruses · 2019Article
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16 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHepatitis C virus (HCV) antigen testing is less expensive than quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction but has lower sensitivity for very low viral load (VLVL; HCV RNA ≤3000 IU/mL). Currently the benefits of antigen testing for screening are discussed, but data on prevalence and outcomes of persons with VLVL are scarce.
methodsWe assessed prevalence and predictors of VLVL by logistic regression in treatment-naive participants in the Swiss Hepatitis C Cohort Study. We analyzed if the last viral load after VLVL was low, compared cirrhosis and mortality in persons with and without VLVL, and evaluated the number of samples with VLVL that were reactive by antigen testing.
resultsWe included 2533 treatment-naive persons with available quantitative HCV RNA testing results. Overall, 133 persons (5.3%) had a VLVL. Age 18-40 years, female sex, and human immunodeficiency virus coinfection were associated with VLVL. Of 72 persons with a viral load available after VLVL, 14% had a VLVL and 17% had spontaneous viral clearance. The prevalence and incidence of cirrhosis and mortality were comparable in persons with and without VLVL; all 24 persons with VLVL and cirrhosis had excessive alcohol consumption or immunosuppression. Overall, 33% of samples with VLVL were reactive by antigen testing.
conclusionsThe frequency of VLVL was low. Among the persons who would probably be missed by antigen screening, some had a favorable disease course, but some had immunosuppression and liver cirrhosis. The benefit of HCV antigen testing for screening may be limited by the risk of missing patients with severe liver disease.
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