title: Performance evaluation of new automated hepatitis B viral markers in the clinical laboratory: two quantitative hepatitis B surface antigen assays and an HBV core-related antigen assay.
abstract: We evaluated quantitative hepatitis B surface antigen (qHBsAg) assays and a hepatitis B virus (HBV) core-related antigen (HBcrAg) assay. A total of 529 serum samples from patients with hepatitis B were tested. HBsAg levels were determined by using the Elecsys (Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, IN) and Architect (Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL) qHBsAg assays. HBcrAg was measured by using Lumipulse HBcrAg assay (Fujirebio, Tokyo, Japan). Serum aminotransferases and HBV DNA were respectively quantified by using the Hitachi 7600 analyzer (Hitachi High-Technologies, Tokyo, Japan) and the Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan test (Roche). Precision of the qHBsAg and HBcrAg assays was assessed, and linearity of the qHBsAg assays was verified. All assays showed good precision performance with coefficients of variation between 4.5% and 5.3% except for some levels. Both qHBsAg assays showed linearity from 0.1 to 12,000.0 IU/mL and correlated well (r = 0.9934). HBsAg levels correlated with HBV DNA (r = 0.3373) and with HBcrAg (r = 0.5164), and HBcrAg also correlated with HBV DNA (r = 0.5198; P < .0001). This observation could provide impetus for further research to elucidate the clinical usefulness of the qHBsAg and HBcrAg assays.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Yongjung
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Duck Jin
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Saeam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Yonggeun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Hyon-Suk
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D010338:Pathology, Clinical / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens