title: Three manual immunoassays for the rapid detection of hepatitis B surface antigen.
abstract: We have evaluated 3 commercial test kits for the detection of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) which do not require elaborate instrumentation and are relatively inexpensive. These included the Immunocomb-II (Orgenics, Israel), Austragen latex agglutination (Span, India) and Daina Screen (Abbott, USA) tests. A panel of 98 sera tested by IMx HBsAg assay (Abbott, USA) were used to evaluate the tests. Sensitivities of 96.6%, 86.2% and 96.6%, and specificities of 95.7%, 94.2% and 100%, respectively, were obtained. We therefore recommend the Immunocomb-II or Daina Screen tests for HBsAg detection in small laboratories where facilities to conduct automated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays are not available.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Finny
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: John
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Babu
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sridharan
mesh_terms: D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007841:Latex Fixation Tests; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens