| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
Technical Briefs |
1
Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Robert Bosch Hospital, Auerbachstrasse 110, D-70376 Stuttgart, Germany
a author for correspondence: fax 49-711-8101-3618, e-mail Dieter.Ratge@RBK.de
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been identified as the agent
responsible for the vast majority of cases of posttransfusion non-A,
non-B hepatitis. Although generally asymptomatic, 
85% of the
infections become chronic with a wide spectrum of outcomes
(1).
Current assays developed to detect antibodies against HCV proteins are successful in detecting most cases of chronic HCV infection. Antibody tests may be negative, however, in cases of acute HCV infection during the window that precedes seroconversion. No immunoassay for direct detection of HCV antigen is available at the present time. With nucleic acid amplification tests, it is possible to detect HCV viremia an average of 59 days before immunological seroconversion (2)(3).
Nucleic acid amplification tests for detection of HCV sequences in blood products became compulsory in Germany on April 1, 1999 (4)(5). Because HCV, with its extremely heterogeneous genome, circulates in the blood in concentrations that range from undetectable (<50 copies/mL) up to 109 copies/mL (6), a detection limit of 5000 IU/mL (according to WHO, 1 IU corresponds to 2–5 genome copies, depending on the HCV-RNA method) in a single blood specimen is acceptable by the criteria of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI, Langen, Germany).
In blood bank settings, the Cobas Amplicor Hepatitis C Virus Test, Ver. 2.0 (Roche Molecular Biochemicals) (7), is the most frequently used assay. Testing of only a few samples with this assay is quite expensive. Furthermore, turnaround time of PCR and detection exceeds 4 h. For selected single donations of thrombocytes collected by thrombocytapheresis, e.g., for severely ill patients with HLA antibodies, the time period between preparation and release of the result often is too long.
The recent development of real-time quantitative PCR based on the
LightCycler (Roche Molecular Biochemicals) (8) offers
Acknowledgments
References
The following articles in journals at HighWire Press have cited this article:
|
|
 |
|
  E. Vincent, Z. Gu, M. Morgenstern, C. Gibson, J. Pan, and R. T. Hayden Detection of Cytomegalovirus in Whole Blood Using Three Different Real-Time PCR Chemistries J. Mol. Diagn., January 1, 2009; 11(1): 54 - 59. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. Dreier, M. Stormer, and K. Kleesiek Use of Bacteriophage MS2 as an Internal Control in Viral Reverse Transcription-PCR Assays J. Clin. Microbiol., September 1, 2005; 43(9): 4551 - 4557. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 L. Ramon, J. Gilabert-Estelles, R. Castello, J. Gilabert, F. Espana, A. Romeu, M. Chirivella, J. Aznar, and A. Estelles mRNA analysis of several components of the plasminogen activator and matrix metalloproteinase systems in endometriosis using a real-time quantitative RT-PCR assay Hum. Reprod., January 1, 2005; 20(1): 272 - 278. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. Castello, A. Estelles, C. Vazquez, C. Falco, F. Espana, S. M. Almenar, C. Fuster, and J. Aznar Quantitative Real-Time Reverse Transcription-PCR Assay for Urokinase Plasminogen Activator, Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor Type 1, and Tissue Metalloproteinase Inhibitor Type 1 Gene Expressions in Primary Breast Cancer Clin. Chem., August 1, 2002; 48(8): 1288 - 1295. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
H. H. Kessler, G. Muhlbauer, E. Stelzl, E. Daghofer, B. I. Santner, and E. Marth Fully Automated Nucleic Acid Extraction: MagNA Pure LC Clin. Chem., June 1, 2001; 47(6): 1124 - 1126. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
