A Comparison of Rapid Card Test with Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for the Detection of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen [HBsAg] in Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The most important marker for HBV infection is HBsAg. In case of diagnosis of infectious disease, discordant results may have serious consequences among the patients as it causes unnecessary mental stress and tension. For proper diagnosis of infection as well as disease management and prevention, identification of appropriate test kit is necessary. Aims and Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the analytical sensitivity of a rapid card test in comparison to Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) method in the detection of HBV infection among blood samples of all age group. Material and Methods: A prospective study was conducted from November 2016 to December 2016 in a tertiary care hospital at Jhalawar, Rajasthan, India. A total of 1162 blood samples were received for HBsAg diagnosis in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Jhalawar Medical College, Jhalawar, Rajasthan, India. Each blood sample was tested for HBsAg using both rapid card test [HEPACARD-DIAGNOSTIC ENTERPRISES] and ELISA [MERILISA-HBsAg-MERIL DIAGNOSTIC] method. Result: Using ELISA as a confirmatory method, sensitivity of rapid card test was 95.12%, specificity was 99.82%, positive predictive value was 95.12%, negative predictive value was 99.82%, diagnostic accuracy was 99.65%, and kappa statistic value was 0.949. Conclusion: The card test’s sensitivity and specificity is comparable with ELISA. These rapid kits are cheaper and easy to perform and their use should be encouraged at rural settings where sophisticated setups are not available, so that the patient should be channelized faster towards specific and accurate diagnosis.

Keyword: Hepatitis B virus, Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HbsAg), Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)

Cite this Article Mishra RK, Tiwari YK, Pundir S et al. A Comparison of Rapid Card Test with Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for the Detection of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen [HBsAg] in tertiary care hospital. Research & Reviews: A Journal of Microbiology and Virology. 2017; 7(3): 27–31p.