title: Detection of serum hepatitis B virus using a nested polymerase chain reaction assay.
abstract: We described a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to detect serum hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in patients. We compared the sensitivity of the PCR assay to that of slot-blot hybridization for detecting HBV DNA in serum and found that analysis by PCR provides a > 10(4) fold increase over the slot-blot assay. Most of the HBe Ag-positive patients were positive in PCR, and most of those being anti-HBe-positive were negative with this PCR assay.
authors.affiliation: International Institute of Anthropology, Paris, France.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lucotte
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Galzot
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bathelier
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Champenois
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D015342:DNA Probes / Q000097:blood; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D006513:Hepatitis B e Antigens / Q000097:blood; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D015342:DNA Probes; D004279:DNA, Viral; D006513:Hepatitis B e Antigens