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Am J Perinatol 1998; 15(6): 395-398
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-993964
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

© 1998 by Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc.

Can Risk Factor Screening Predict Hepatitis C Antibody Reactivity?

Urania Magriples, Peter Bernstein, Edward Snyder, Joshua A. Copel
  • Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Laboratory Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
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Publication Date:
04 March 2008 (online)

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ABSTRACT

The object of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) by second-generation testing and to determine the effectiveness of risk factor-guided screening. We performed a prospective study of HCV exposure determined by second-generation enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay (ELISA) and confirmed by radioimmunoblot assay (RIBA). Risk factors (RF) were interpreted by univariate and multivariate analyses. Eight hundred eighty-six consecutive patients were tested for HCV over a 1-year period; 34 women tested positive for HCV and 32 were confirmed by RIBA (prevalence 3.6%). Forty-nine percent of women had at least one RF. Age, intravenous drug use, history of hepatitis strongly correlated with HCV (p <0.001). RF screening had a sensitivity of 81%. Twenty-one percent of women with HCV had no RF. The absence of any RF had a negative predictive value of 98.7%. RF screening is effective in identifying patients at low risk for HCV.

Keywords

Hepatitis C - Hepatitis C epidemiology - Hepatitis C screening