Latex agglutination and immunochromatographic screening tests versus reverse passive hemagglutination for hepatitis B surface antigen in serum

ABSTRACT

Latex agglutination [LA] and immunochromatographic technique [ICT] for hepatitis B surface antigen [HbsAg] testing have been evaluated against Reverse Passive Hemagglutination [RPHA] on 133 serum samples obtained from hepatitis admitted and medical OPD referred patients. LA method has shown same sensitivity as that of ICT and RPHA but has lower specificity, while the ICT is both highly specific and sensitive as compared to RPHA. It has been suggested that positive results obtained with LA method may be interpreted with care keeping in mind the lower specificity of the method. ICT can be used with confidence where Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay [ELISA] and RPHA are not available. It is also recommended that the studies reported earlier on prevalence of hepatitis B virus [HBV] disease using LA technique, should be reviewed. Using the easy, sensitive, reliable and cheap immunochromatographic technique