• Wei-Ming Chen, Chih-Yi Lee, Nien-Tzu Hsu, Wei-Cheng Huang, Mei-Yen Chen, Tung-Jung Huang, and Sheng-Nan Lu.
• Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan; Department of Health and Nutrition, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan, Taiwan; School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
• J Formos Med Assoc. 2021 May 1; 120 (5): 1237-1241.

Background/PurposeThe HCV core antigen (HCV Ag) assay displays high sensitivity and strong correlation with HCV RNA. However, the feasibility of anti-HCV reflex HCV Ag screening in a community-wide setting is rarely discussed.MethodsWe performed a two-phase community-based hepatitis C screen in an HCV-prone area of central Taiwan. During the training phase, all participants were test for anti-HCV, HCV Ag and HCV RNA to validate sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of HCV Ag. During the validation phase, an anti-HCV reflex HCV Ag screen was conducted based on the results of training phase. Outcomes of the study were presented as positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV).ResultsOf 935 training phase participants, the rate of positive anti-HCV and HCV Ag were 175 (18.7%) and 78 (8.3%), respectively. Test sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of HCV Ag were 97.1%, 98.6%, and 97.8%, respectively. During validation phase, only anti-HCV-positive serum samples were tested for HCV Ag. Of 1932 participant, 285 (14.8%) were anti-HCV-positive. 133 (46.7%) of the 285 anti-HCV-positive samples were HCV Ag-positive. PPV and NPV were 98.4% and 99.3%, respectively. Across the entire participant sample, a significant linear correlation between HCV Ag and HCV RNA concentration was noted (r2 = 0.93, p-value<0.001) following log-log transformation.ConclusionAnti-HCV reflex HCV Ag screening is a feasible strategy for aiding HCV-prone communities.Copyright © 2020 Formosan Medical Association. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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