Journal ArticleDOI
Core antigen tests for hepatitis C virus: a meta-analysis
Shuijun Gu,Jun Liu,Huijun Zhang,Baoluo Gu,Hanjiang Lai,Hongliang Zhou,Chaoqi He,Yingying Chen +7 more
TLDR
Considering the higher sensitivity (0.926) and specificity of subgroup, HCV-cAg detection is a promising method as a confirmatory test for HCV antibody positive, therapy-naive individuals, while the heterogeneity of sensitivity was still significant.Abstract:
Diagnosis and monitoring of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection relies mainly on the detection of HCV antibodies and HCV RNA. HCV antibody test has a longer window period and is not applicable in the immunosuppressed population. Although HCV RNA test reduces the window period, it is still not widely recommended because of its high cost and requirement of specific equipment. HCV core antigen is another direct virological marker which has been investigated in recent years. HCV core antigen assay is as simple as the HCV antibodies assay and can detect HCV infection only 1 day delay compared to the HCV RNA assay. In order to evaluate the application of HCV core antigen test in HCV diagnosis and management, we performed this meta-analysis. Twenty five articles were finally included in meta-analysis. All statistical analyses were performed with MetaDisc 1.4 and Stata 11.0. The pooled sensitivity of HCV core antigen assay was 0.84 (95 % CI, 0.83-0.85), and the pooled specificity was 0.98 (95 % CI, 0.97-0.98). HCV core antigen assays may not displace HCV RNA assays to be a definitive diagnosis of HCV infection until now. Considering the higher sensitivity (0.926) and specificity (0.991) of subgroup, HCV-cAg detection is a promising method as a confirmatory test for HCV antibody positive, therapy-naive individuals. Explored by meta-regression and subgroup analysis, possible sources of heterogeneity of specificity was found, while the heterogeneity of sensitivity was still significant.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Hepatitis C Core Antigen Testing for Diagnosis of Hepatitis C Virus Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
J. Morgan Freiman,Trang M. Tran,Samuel G Schumacher,Laura F. White,Stefano Ongarello,Jennifer Cohn,Philippa Easterbrook,Benjamin P. Linas,Claudia M. Denkinger +8 more
TL;DR: Testing for hepatitis C virus core antigen (HCVcAg) is a potential replacement for NAT and could be attractive as a single-step diagnosis for chronic HCV infection in high-prevalence settings, which would streamline the HCV cascade of care and reduce loss to follow-up.
Journal Article
Hepatitis C Core Antigen Testing for Diagnosis of Hepatitis C Virus Infection
J. Morgan Freiman,Trang M. Tran,Samuel G Schumacher,Laura F. White,Stefano Ongarello,Jennifer Cohn,Philippa Easterbrook,Benjamin P. Linas,Claudia M. Denkinger +8 more
TL;DR: A systematic review of 44 studies evaluat... as discussed by the authors showed that diagnosis of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection usually requires both a positive HCV antibody screen and confirmatory nucleic acid testing (NAT).
Journal ArticleDOI
Current testing strategies for hepatitis C virus infection in blood donors and the way forward.
Neelam Marwaha,Suchet Sachdev +1 more
TL;DR: Molecular testing for HCV-RNA utilizing nucleic acid amplification technology (NAT) is the most sensitive assay and shortens the window period to only 4 d, and wherever feasible HCV antibody EIAs are most frequently used screening assays.
Journal ArticleDOI
Development Of A Nucleic Acid Lateral Flow Strip For Detection Of Hepatitis C Virus (Hcv) Core Antigen
TL;DR: The results indicated that a nucleic acid lateral flow strip was a simple, rapid, specific, highly sensitive, and cost-effective field-based method for detecting HCV core antigen.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Bias in meta-analysis detected by a simple, graphical test
TL;DR: Funnel plots, plots of the trials' effect estimates against sample size, are skewed and asymmetrical in the presence of publication bias and other biases Funnel plot asymmetry, measured by regression analysis, predicts discordance of results when meta-analyses are compared with single large trials.
Journal ArticleDOI
The development of QUADAS: a tool for the quality assessment of studies of diagnostic accuracy included in systematic reviews
TL;DR: In this article, an evidence-based quality assessment tool called QUADAS was proposed to assess the quality of primary studies of diagnostic accuracy, based on the results of three previously conducted reviews of the diagnostic literature.
Journal ArticleDOI
Meta-DiSc: a software for meta-analysis of test accuracy data
TL;DR: Meta-DiSc is a comprehensive and dedicated test accuracy meta-analysis software that has already been used and cited in several meta-analyses published in high-ranking journals and is publicly available.
Journal ArticleDOI
Exploring sources of heterogeneity in systematic reviews of diagnostic tests
TL;DR: Empirical support for the existence of different sources of variation is reviewed, and incorporation of sources of variability explicitly into systematic reviews on diagnostic accuracy is demonstrated with data from a recent review.
Journal ArticleDOI
Development of a Simple and Highly Sensitive Enzyme Immunoassay for Hepatitis C Virus Core Antigen
Katsumi Aoyagi,Chiharu Ohue,Kumiko Iida,Tatsuji Kimura,Eiji Tanaka,Kendo Kiyosawa,Shintaro Yagi +6 more
TL;DR: This assay for HCVcAg is simpler than assays forHCV RNA based on gene technology and shows specificity and sensitivity equivalent to those of the AMPLICOR HCV test.
Related Papers (5)
HCV antigen testing for the diagnosis of hepatitis C infection: a cost-efficient algorithm.
Kamran Kadkhoda,Gerry Smart +1 more