EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING  HCV CORE ANTIGEN TEST IN DIAGNOSING HEPATITIS C

Lê Thị Thanh Nhàn

doi:10.34238/tnu-jst.10927

EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING HCV CORE ANTIGEN TEST IN DIAGNOSING HEPATITIS C

About this article

Received: 12/08/24 Revised: 17/11/24 Published: 18/11/24

Authors

Le Thi Thanh Nhan , Nguyen Tat Thanh University

Abstract

Hepatitis C is a direct cause of serious global health issues. Early diagnosis and treatment of HCV are crucial due to the often silent and asymptomatic progression of the disease. The aim of this study is to determine the concentrations of HCVcAg and HCV RNA; analyze the correlation between ALT and AST levels with HCVcAg concentrations; and evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of HCVcAg and Anti-HCV tests in diagnosing HCV. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on patients at risk of diagnosed with hepatitis, with data analyzed and processed using Stata 17.0 software. The median concentration of HCVcAg was 0.5 fmol/L, and the HCV RNA viral load was 79250 IU/ml. ALT and AST levels positively correlated with HCVcAg concentrations. The sensitivity of the HCVcAg test was 93.3% and Anti-HCV was 96.7%, with no significant difference, but the specificity of the HCVcAg test was 91.4%, better than that of Anti-HCV at 8.6%. The concentration of HCVcAg positively correlates with ALT and AST liver enzyme levels. Additionally, HCVcAg has high sensitivity and specificity, aiding in distinguishing actual viral infections from past infections.

Keywords

Hepatitis C; HCVcAg; HCV RNA; Anti-HCV; AST; ALT

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34238/tnu-jst.10927

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