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Twenty-four mini-pool HCV RNA screening outside a blood transfusion setting: results of a 2-year prospective study.

Seme K, Mocilnik T, Fujs K, Babic DZ, Todorović A, Fras-Stefan T, Poljak M

Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical Faculty of Ljubljana, Zaloska 4, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. katja.seme@mf.uni-lj.si

The usefulness of 24 mini-pool hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA screening was evaluated in a 2-year prospective study carried out on a total of 6432 consecutive anti-HCV negative specimens in a routine diagnostic laboratory setting. A total of 268 mini-pools were tested using an automated commercial PCR assay for qualitative detection of HCV RNA, with a lower limit of detection of 50 IU/ml. Eighteen (0.28%) anti-HCV negative/HCV RNA positive serum samples obtained from 12 patients (all intravenous drug users), were detected. Ten patients responded to an invitation for follow-up testing. Five, three and one patient seroconverted in the first, second and third follow-up sample, respectively. One patient had not seroconverted by the end of the study period. The interval between the first HCV RNA positive sample and the first anti-HCV positive samples was 24-192 days. The costs of detecting a single anti-HCV negative/HCV RNA positive sample and a single anti-HCV negative/HCV RNA positive patient using the 24 mini-pool HCV RNA screening strategy were estimated to be around euro 643 and 965, respectively. It was shown that screening for HCV infection using the 24 mini-pool HCV RNA screening strategy can also be both useful and cost effective outside a blood transfusion setting.

Published 5 February 2007 in J Virol Methods, 140(1): 218-21.
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