Threshold value of LIAISON XL anti-HCV screening assay predicting positive immunoblotting results

Abstract

Some international guidelines recommend evaluating the need to confirm positive anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody screening results by means of a more specific antibody or molecular biology test on the basis of a screening threshold value (such as the sample signal/cut-off ratio) that can predict the positivity of additional antibody testing in at least 95% of cases. The aim of this study was to determine the threshold value of the DiaSorin LIAISON XL chemiluminescence test. Two hundred and twenty-eight routine laboratory samples that were chemiluminescence positive for anti-HCV antibodies but had different signal/cut-off ratios were assayed using immunoblotting, which indicated that 155 (68.0%) were positive, 40 (17.5%) were negative, and 33 (14.5%) were indeterminate. When the samples were divided on the basis of their signal/cut-off ratios, 95.5% of the samples with a ratio of ≥3.5 were positive as against 74.1% of the positive or indeterminate samples with a ratio of <3.5. Statistical analysis using Youden's index and a receiver operating characteristic curve showed that the optimum cut-off value was 3.65. These findings indicate that, when using the LIAISON XL system for anti-HCV antibody screening, a signal/cut-off ratio of ≥3.65 makes further confirmatory tests unnecessary.

Keywords: hepatitis C virus; immunological techniques; inapparent infection.