Significance of isolated hepatitis B core antibody in blood donors from São Paulo

• Main Authors: ALMEIDA NETO Cesar de, STRAUSS Edna, SABINO Esther Cerdeira, SUCUPIRA Maria Cecília Araripe, CHAMONE Dalton de Alencar Fischer
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo (USP) 2001
• Subjects: Hepatitis B; Anti-HBc; Antibodies; HBV-DNA; HBV vaccine; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/040104396c3c4c4a980bf7522c0d85f5

The clinical significance of isolated anti-HBc is still a challenge. To elucidate the real importance of this finding in our blood donors, an investigation algorithm was tested. One hundred and twelve isolated anti-HBc seropositive blood donors underwent clinical evaluation and retesting of HBV markers. Those who presented repeatedly reactive isolated anti-HBc, received a single dose of hepatitis B recombinant vaccine to verify anti-HBs early response. A HBV-DNA determination by PCR was done for those who did not test positive to anti-HBs after vaccine. The level of anti-HBc was recorded as a ratio of the sample-to-cut-off values (S:C ratio) in 57 candidates at donation. Comparing true and false-positive anti-HBc results, the different S:C ratios of them were statistically significant and when less than 2, implying in a false-positive result probability over 80%. A high percent of false-positive results (16.07%) was verified after anti-HBc retesting. HBV immunity was characterized in 49.11%, either by anti-HBs detection in retesting (15.18%), or after a single dose HBV vaccination (33.93%). HBV-DNA was negative in all tested donors. In conclusion, this algorithm was useful to clarify the meaning of isolated anti-HBc in most of our blood donors.