[Performance evaluation of Abbott RealTime HBV Quantification Kit for HBV viral load by real-time PCR].
BACKGROUND
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA quantification is necessary for starting and monitoring of antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B. This study was intended to assess the clinical performance of Abbott RealTime HBV Quantification kit (Abbott Laboratories, USA).


METHODS
The performance was evaluated in terms of precision, linearity, detection sensitivity, cross-reactivity, and carry-over. A correlation with the Real-Q HBV Quantification kit (BioSewoom Inc., Korea) was also examined using serum samples from 64 patients diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B and underwent lamivudine therapy in Asan Medical Center. We verified the trueness of the system by comparing the outputs with the assigned values of the BBI panel (BBI Diagnostics, USA).


RESULTS
Within-run and between-run coefficients of variation (CV) were 3.56-4.71% and 3.03-4.98%, respectively. Linearity was manifested ranging from 53 to 10(9)copies/mL and the detection sensitivity was verified to be 51 copies/mL. None of hepatitis C virus showed cross-reactivity. No cross-contamination occurred when negative and positive samples were alternatively placed in a row. It showed a good correlation with the Real-Q HBV (r(2)=0.9609) and the test results for the BBI panel were also well agreed to the assigned values (r(2)=0.9933).


CONCLUSIONS
The performance of Abbott RealTime HBV Quantification kit was excellent; thus, it should be widely used in starting and monitoring of antiviral therapy in Korean patients with chronic hepatitis B.
Kim
Myeong Hee
MH
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Asan Medical Center and University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Cha
Choong Hwan
CH
An
Dongheui
D
Choi
Sung Eun
SE
Oh
Heung Bum
HB
D003199:Computer Systems; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D019562:Viral Load / Q000379:methods*
D004279:DNA, Viral; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic