Viruses (May 2022)

Diagnostic Performance of an Automated System for Assaying Anti-Hepatitis E Virus Immunoglobulins M and G Compared with a Conventional Microplate Assay

  • Florence Abravanel,
  • Delphine Parraud,
  • Sabine Chapuy-Regaud,
  • Marcel Miedouge,
  • Estelle Bonnin,
  • Margaux Larrieu,
  • Alexandre Aversenq,
  • Sébastien Lhomme,
  • Jacques Izopet

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/v14051065
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 5
p. 1065

Abstract

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To evaluate the diagnostic performance of the Liaison® Murex anti-HEV IgM and IgG assays running on the Liaison® instrument and compare the results with those obtained with Wantai HEV assays. We tested samples collected in immunocompetent and immunocompromised patients during the acute (HEV RNA positive, anti-HEV IgM positive) and the post-viremic phase (HEV RNA negative, anti-HEV IgM positive) of infections. The specificity was assessed by testing HEV RNA negative/anti-HEV IgG-IgM negative samples. The clinical sensitivity of the Liaison® IgM assay was 100% for acute-phase samples (56/56) and 57.4% (27/47) for post-viremic samples from immunocompetent patients. It was 93.8% (30/32) for acute-phase (viremic) samples and 71%% (22/31) for post-viremic samples from immunocompromised patients. The clinical sensitivity of the Liaison® IgG assay was 100% for viremic samples (56/56) and 94.6% (43/47) for post-viremic samples from immunocompetent patients. It was 84.3% (27/32) for viremic samples and 93.5% (29/31) for post-viremic samples from immunocompromised patients. Specificity was very high (>99%) in both populations. We checked the limit of detection stated for the Liaison® IgG assay (0.3 U/mL). The clinical performance of the Liaison® ANTI-HEV assays was good. These rapid, automated assays for detecting anti-HEV antibodies will greatly enhance the arsenal for diagnosing HEV infections.

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