Use of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Immunoglobulin G Antibody Avidity as a Biomarker to Estimate the Population-Level Incidence of HCV Infection.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Sensitive methods are needed to estimate the population-level incidence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

Methods

We developed an HCV immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody avidity assay by modifying the Ortho 3.0 HCV enzyme-linked immunoassay and tested 997 serum or plasma samples from 568 people who inject drugs enrolled in prospective cohort studies. Avidity-based testing algorithms were evaluated by their (1) mean duration of recent infection (MDRI), defined as the average time an individual is identified as having been recently infected, according to a given algorithm; (2) false-recent rate, defined as the proportion of samples collected >2 years after HCV seroconversion that were misclassified as recent; (3) sample sizes needed to estimate incidence; and (4) po

SUBMITTER: Patel EU 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4936640 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature