ArticleBMC nephrology2020
Hepatitis C core antigen testing to diagnose active hepatitis C infection among haemodialysis patients.
Article in BMC nephrology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Performance of HCV Antigen Testing for the Diagnosis and Monitoring of Antiviral Treatment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.BioMed research international · 2022Pooled it
- Moving Toward Hepatitis C Elimination in Haemodialysis: HCV Antigen as a Practical Screening Alternative.Cureus · 2026Article
- Optimizing hepatitis C virus testing in the era of point-of-care RNA diagnostics.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2026Article
- Hepatitis C Virus-Core Antigen: Implications in Diagnostic, Treatment Monitoring and Clinical Outcomes.Viruses · 2024Review
- Opportunities for Enhanced Prevention and Control of Hepatitis C Through Improved Screening and Testing Efforts.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Time to complete hepatitis C cascade of care among patients identified during mass screening campaigns in rural Rwanda: a retrospective cohort study.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Article
- Hepatitis C Diagnosis: Simplified Solutions, Predictive Barriers, and Future Promises.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- HCV core antigen plays an important role in the fight against HCV as an alternative to HCV-RNA detection.Journal of clinical laboratory analysis · 2021Review
- Laboratory Evaluation of Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis from North East India.Journal of clinical and experimental hepatologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundHepatitis C virus (HCV) infects more than 71 million people worldwide and chronic HCV infection increases the risk of liver cirrhosis and failure. Haemodialysis (HD) is one of the renal replacement therapies with risk of HCV transmission. Anti-HCV antibodies are the serological screening test for HCV infection that does not detect active phase of infection. Majority HCV infected HD patients in Malaysia do not have further HCV RNA performed due to high cost and thus HCV treatment is less frequently offered. HCV Core Antigen (HCV Ag) can potentially be used to diagnose active HCV infection in HD population in comparison to HCV RNA, at lower cost.
methodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study to assess the correlation between HCV Ag and HCV RNA and to identify the prevalence of active HCV infection among HCV seropositive HD patients from dialysis centres across West Malaysia from July 2019 to May 2020. Pre-dialysis blood was taken and tested for both HCV Ag and HCV RNA tests. HCV Ag was tested with Abbott ARCHITECT HCV Ag test.
resultsWe recruited 112 seropositive HD patients from 17 centres with mean age of 54.04 ± 11.62 years, HD vintage of 14.1 ± 9.7 years, and male constitute 59.8% (67) of the study population. HCV Ag correlates well with HCV RNA (Spearman test coefficient 0.833, p < 0.001). The sensitivity was 90.7%, specificity 100%, positive predictive value (PPV) 100%, negative predictive value (NPV) 76.5%, and accuracy 92.9%. For HCV RNA level > 3000 IU/mL, HCV Ag had a higher sensitivity of 95.1% and greater correlation (Spearman test coefficient 0.897, p < 0.001). The prevalence of active HCV infection was 76.8% among HCV seropositive HD patients.
conclusionsAlthough HCV Ag is less sensitive, it shows an excellent correlation with HCV RNA and has 100% PPV. HCV Ag can be considered as an alternative diagnostic tool for chronic active HCV infection among HD cohort, who can then be considered for HCV treatment. For seropositive HD patient with negative HCV Ag, we recommend to follow-up with HCV RNA test.
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