The objective of this research was to investigate the clinical performance of COBAS AMPLICOR hepatitis C virus (HCV) test version 2.0 Assays (CA V2.0). Eight serial samples with standard HCV ribonucleic acid (RNA) concentration and 10 times serial dilution of the 500IU/mL samples were tested in triplicate by CA V2.0 (the limit of detection was 50 IU/mL). HCV RNA was investigated with CA V2.0 in 220 specimens from 100 chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients, 60 chronic hepatitis B patients, and 60 healthy blood donors. The sensitivity was 99% and the specificity was 98.3%. Sera of 84 naïve CHC patients receiving standard interferon plus ribavirin for 24 weeks were tested by CA V2.0 and CA V1.0 at weeks 2, 4 and 8. The positive detection rates of CA V2.0 were significantly higher than CA V1.0 at week 2 (60.7% vs. 51.2%; p < 0.01) and week 8 (27.4% vs. 21.4%; p<0.05). At weeks 2, 4 and 8, the positive predictive values were 90.91%, 83.02% and 78.69% with CA V2.0, and 90.24%, 82.14% and 72.73% with CA V1.0. The negative predictive values were 58.82%, 77.42% and 86.96% with CA V2.0, and 67.44%, 82.14% and 83.33% with CA V1.0. However, there was no significant difference between CA V2.0 and CA V1.0 for predicting sustained virologic response.
The objective of this research was to investigate the clinical performance of COBAS AMPLICOR hepatitis C virus (HCV) test version 2.0 Assays (CA V2.0). Eight serial samples with standard HCV ribonucleic acid (RNA) concentration and 10 times serial dilution of the 500IU/mL samples were tested in triplicate by CA V2.0 (the limit of detection was 50 IU/mL). HCV RNA was investigated with CA V2.0 in 220 specimens from 100 chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients, 60 chronic hepatitis B patients, and 60 healthy blood donors. The sensitivity was 99% and the specificity was 98.3%. Sera of 84 naïve CHC patients receiving standard interferon plus ribavirin for 24 weeks were tested by CA V2.0 and CA V1.0 at weeks 2, 4 and 8. The positive detection rates of CA V2.0 were significantly higher than CA V1.0 at week 2 (60.7% vs. 51.2%; p < 0.01) and week 8 (27.4% vs. 21.4%; p<0.05). At weeks 2, 4 and 8, the positive predictive values were 90.91%, 83.02% and 78.69% with CA V2.0, and 90.24%, 82.14% and 72.73% with CA V1.0. The negative predictive values were 58.82%, 77.42% and 86.96% with CA V2.0, and 67.44%, 82.14% and 83.33% with CA V1.0. However, there was no significant difference between CA V2.0 and CA V1.0 for predicting sustained virologic response.