Comparison of diagnostic modalities for diagnosis of hepatitis-C virus infection using Rapid Antigen Diagnostic Kit and ELISA

Abstract

Introduction: Hepatitis-C virus (HCV) causes liver disease which can cause acute & chronic hepatitis, Illness may range from asymptomatic cases to serious life long illness which may result in chronic hepatitis & hepato-cellular carcinoma. HCV is blood borne virus transmission of which is mainly parental, infection also spread by sexual contact & from vertical transmission from mother to baby. Material & Method: Study was conducted for a period of six month. Sample send for routine anti HCV antibodies were subjected to ELISA & rapid card test. Considering ELISA as gold standard, rapid card test was compared with it. Result: Out of 2295 blood samples tested on rapid card 56 samples were reactive while 2239 sample were non reactive. On further testing with ELISA 2 samples were false positive and 8 samples were detected false negative using ELISA as gold standard test. Sensitivity of rapid test was 85.7% while specificity of rapid test was found to be 99.91%. Positive predictive value (PPV) was 96% while negative predictive value (NPV) was 99.64% . P value was <0.001 which is statistically significant and in favor of ELISA. Conclusion: Present study shows that rapid tests are inferior as compared to ELISA and hence they should not be recommended in screening of blood donor and for treatment initiation.