title: Significance of serum IgA in patients with acute hepatitis E virus infection.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the significance of serum anti-hepatitis E virus (HEV) IgA in patients with hepatitis E.
  
  
  METHODS
  A new method was established to assay anti-HEV IgA, which could be detected in the middle phase of the infection. We compared anti-HEV IgA assay with anti-HEV IgM and anti-HEV IgG assay in sera from 60 patients with positive HEV-RNA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 60 patients with positive HEV-RNA had both anti-HEV IgA and anti-HEV IgM and 410 patients with negative HEV-RNA were used as control. Periodic serum samples obtained from 60 patients with hepatitis E were tested for HEV RNA, anti-HEV IgM, anti-HEV IgA and anti-HEV IgG. Their HEV-RNA was detectable in the serum until 20 +/- 11 d. We used anti-HEV IgM and anti-HEV IgA assay to detect HEV infection and positive results were found in 90 +/- 15 d and 120 +/- 23 d respectively, the positive rate of anti-HEV IgA was higher than that of anti-HEV IgM and HEV-RNA (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The duration of anti-HEV IgA in serum is longer than that of anti-HEV IgM, and anti-HEV IgA assay is a good method to detect HEV infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei Provice, China. dytian@tjh.tjmu.edu.cn
authors.forename: De-Ying
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ning-Shao
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Xia
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies; D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D012367:RNA, Viral