Frequency and significance of antibodies against hepatitis B core (
anti-HBc) antigen as the only serological marker for hepatitis B infection in Lebanese blood donors.
Anti-HBc was the only serological marker of HBV exposure in 41.1% of our patients.
Prevalencia e media geometrica dos titulos de anti-HBs, HBsAg e
Anti-HBc foram calculados com 95% de intervalo de confianca.
(23) On the other hand, occult HBV infection (OBI) is defined by negative HBsAg in the presence of HBV DNA, regardless of the positive test for either
anti-HBc or anti-HBs.
Viral markers of hepatitis B virus were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) including HBsAg, anti-HBs and
anti-HBc (HBcAb 1 step, MBS.
Furthermore, in some investigations, only
anti-HBc positive patients were included.
No participants were
anti-HBc positive, and no adverse events were reported following the challenge dose.
For detection of OBI -HBV DNA nucleic acid testing should be done even if
anti-HBc and anti-HBs are negative especially in endemic area and in suspected high- risk cases such as those having history of blood and organ donation, transplantation, chemotherapy and hemodialysis.
Serological markers for HBV (HBsAg,
anti-HBc and anti-HBs) were each checked using two different ELISA kits; Siemens (Germany), and Acon (San Diego, USA).
After initial collection, all the samples were tested for the presence of
anti-HBc antibody.