Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 1997 Mar;16(2):146-50.

A critical evaluation of hepatitis C testing of cadaveric corneal donors

K A Laycock  1 , L R Essary, S Delaney, M C Kuhns, J S Pepose
Affiliations
  • PMID: 9071526
Comparative Study

A critical evaluation of hepatitis C testing of cadaveric corneal donors

K A Laycock et al. Cornea. 1997 Mar.

Abstract

Purpose: Enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) for hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies used to screen corneal donors are optimized for testing premortem sera. This study evaluated their efficiency when screening cadaveric sera.

Methods: Abbott HCV EIA 2.0 was used to rescreen 101 cadaveric sera, 70 of which had tested positive and 31 negative by EIA 1.0. Matrix-HCV recombinant immunoblot assay was used as a reference standard. Antibody titers and reactivities were compared in premortem and cadaveric sera. Selected sera from confirmed seropositive donors were screened for virus by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Results: HCV EIA 2.0 was 100% sensitive and 92.7% specific. EIA and Matrix-HCV gave similar end-point titers with pre- and postmortem sera. Viral RNA was detected in only three of 15 sera from seropositive donors.

Conclusions: EIA 2.0 and Matrix-HCV efficiently screen cadaveric sera. However, HCV seropositivity does not necessarily indicate the presence of viral genomes in sera and tissues.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources