title: Comparison of two methods for quantification of hepatitis B viral DNA.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Quantitation of serum hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA has proven useful in assisting with patient management and treatment and several commercially available assays have been developed to quantify serum HBV-DNA levels.
  
  
  METHODS
  The performance of the cross-linking assay and the branched-DNA signal amplification (bDNA) assay for the quantitative measurement of HBV-DNA was studied in 99 hepatitis B surface antigen-positive and viraemic patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of these samples, 82 (83%) were positive for HBV-DNA by both assays and four (4%) were below the cut-off for both assays. Of the remaining 13 samples, 10 contained measurable levels of HBV-DNA by the cross-linking assay alone and three other samples contained measurable levels of HBV-DNA by the bDNA assay alone. The sensitivity gain of the cross-linking assay relative to bDNA assay in this study population was 10/92 (11%). In addition, a linear regression analysis showed that the HBV-DNA levels obtained from both assays was significantly correlated (gamma=0.974, P< 0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest that the recently developed cross-linking assay is more sensitive than the bDNA assay for the quantitative determination of HBV-DNA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, Hepatitis Research Center, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei.
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kao
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: M Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D018189:Immunomagnetic Separation; D016014:Linear Models; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral