Evaluation of dried blood spots as a feasible alternative to plasma for the detection and quantification of hepatitis c virus in a tropical setting: A pilot study

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dc.contributor.authorRanjan, Jen_US
dc.contributor.authorPonnuvel, Sen_US
dc.contributor.authorFletcher, GJen_US
dc.contributor.authorAnantharam, Ren_US
dc.contributor.authorRadhakrishnan, Ken_US
dc.contributor.authorJeyaseelan, Ven_US
dc.contributor.authorAbraham, Pen_US
dc.date.accessioned2020-04-23T07:37:45Z
dc.date.available2020-04-23T07:37:45Z
dc.date.issued2019-03
dc.description.abstractIntroduction: Confirmatory diagnosis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection (HCV RNA detection) is essential before start of the therapy. HCV RNA detection is not available in many parts of India. Shipment of plasma from distant places to referral laboratories may affect HCV RNA titres. Dried blood spots (DBS) provide an easy alternative for transporting samples to centres where HCV RNA testing is done. Aim: Evaluation of DBS as a feasible alternative to plasma for HCV diagnosis. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 40 consecutive patients' blood samples were collected from patients referred from the Liver Clinic. Whole blood was spotted onto two Whatman 903TM cards. One card was incubated at ?37癈 and other at 4癈 for 15 days, after drying. DBS was eluted and run in Abbott RealTime HCV assay. HCV was also quantified using the Abbott ARCHITECT HCV core antigen assay for 29 of the study patients. Results were compared with normal plasma values. Results: The median log HCV RNA value (in log10IU/mL) of plasma was 5.74, with normalised DBS it was 4.92 (?37癈) and 4.66 (4癈); difference in plasma and DBS median log values was 0.82 (?37癈) and 1.08 (4癈) logs, respectively. Interclass correlation values were 0.943, P < 0.0001 (?37癈) and 0.950, P < 0.0001 (4癈), showing high agreement. The median HCV core antigen value (in fmol/L) for plasma was 325.35, whereas it was 4.77 (?37癈) and 4.64 (4癈) for DBS samples. Conclusions: DBS can be used for sampling patients from distant resource-limited settings as an alternative to plasma for HCV RNA estimation. Larger studies are required to evaluate the feasibility of DBS in the Indian subcontinent, especially for HCV core antigen estimation.en_US
dc.identifier.affiliationsDepartment of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, Indiaen_US
dc.identifier.affiliationsDepartment of Biostatistics, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, Indiaen_US
dc.identifier.citationRanjan J, Ponnuvel S, Fletcher GJ, Anantharam R, Radhakrishnan K, Jeyaseelan V, Abraham P. Evaluation of dried blood spots as a feasible alternative to plasma for the detection and quantification of hepatitis c virus in a tropical setting: A pilot study. Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology. 2019 Mar; 37(1): 60-66en_US
dc.identifier.issn0255-0857
dc.identifier.issn1998-3646
dc.identifier.placeIndiaen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://imsear.searo.who.int/handle/123456789/198838
dc.languageenen_US
dc.publisherIndian Association of Medical Microbiologistsen_US
dc.relation.issuenumber1en_US
dc.relation.volume37en_US
dc.source.urihttps://dx.doi.org/10.4103/ijmm.IJMM_19_12en_US
dc.subjectDirectly acting antiviralsen_US
dc.subjectdried blood spotsen_US
dc.subjecthepatitis C virusen_US
dc.titleEvaluation of dried blood spots as a feasible alternative to plasma for the detection and quantification of hepatitis c virus in a tropical setting: A pilot studyen_US
dc.typeJournal Articleen_US
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