HCV-lnfection in Blood Donors: Association between Anti-HCV Core IgM Antibodies and Serum HCV RNA

Abstract

Among 47 blood donors tested positive with HCV EIA 2.0 Abbott, 27 (57.4%) also reacted with four ‘third-generation’ EIAs. The presence of anti-HCV antibodies was confirmed with 3 different immunoblot assays in 16 of 27 sera (34.0%) while 10 samples (21.3%) had indeterminate profile with antibodies usually directed against structural core antigen. Anti-HCV core IgM response was found in 12 of 47 sera (25.5%) and HCV viremia detected by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedure was observed in 15 samples (31.9%). A comparative study of the different markers confirmed a good correlation between a strong antibody response in EIAs and immunoblot assays and the presence of HCV RNA in the serum; only 2 immunoblot indeterminate samples were PCR positive. An association was observed between IgM antibodies against ‘core’ epitopes and HCV RNA carriage: all IgM-positive sera were found positive by PCR. However, the direct detection of viral genome remains the best method for identifying HCV carriers in the blood donor population.