Diagnostic performance of HCV antibody and RNA Determination

Objective To explore changes of anti-HCV antibody and HCV-RNA in patients with HCV infection and its clinical significance in diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C .Methods Serum samples from patients with HCV infection were collected . HCV antibodies were analyzed with a chemiluminescence micro-particle immunoassay method ,while a PCR-fluorescent probe meth-od was used to detect HCV-RNA .Concentrations of ALT and AST were also determined .Based on the concentrations of ALT , AST and HCV-RNA ,samples were divided into two groups respectively and the changes of different indicators were analyzed and compared .Meanwhile samples from 37 HCV-infected patients were collected continuously .Different indicators after treatment were compared with those before treatment .Results HCV-Ab and logarithm values of RNA load in the group with abnormal concentra-tions of ALT and AST were significantly higher than those in the normal group (P0 .05) .Conclusion The diagnostic performance of HCV-Ab is better than that of logarithm values of RNA load .Determination of ALT ,AST and HCV-RNA is of clinical importance in monitoring the effect of hepatitis C treatment .