TY  - JOUR
A1  - Anastasiou, Olympia Evdoxia
A1  - Thodou, Viktoria
A1  - Berger, Annemarie
A1  - Wedemeyer, Heiner
A1  - Ciesek, Sandra
T1  - Comprehensive evaluation of hepatitis E serology and molecular testing in a large cohort
T2  - Pathogens
N2  - Introduction: Reliable and cost-effective diagnostics for hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection are necessary. The aim of our study was to investigate which diagnostic test is most accurate to detect HEV infection in immunocompetent and immunosuppressed patients in a real world setting. Patients and Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of 1165 patients tested for HEV antibodies and HEV PCR at the same time point. Clinical, laboratory and virological data were taken from patient charts. HEV IgA was measured in a subgroup of 185 patients. Results: HEV RNA was detectable in 61 patients (5.2%); most of them (n = 49, 80.3%/n = 43, 70.5%) were HEV IgM+ and IgG+; however, 12 patients (19.6%) were HEV RNA positive/HEV IgM negative and 17 patients (27.8%) were HEV RNA positive/HEV IgG negative. Ten HEV RNA positive patients (16.4%) had neither HEV IgG nor IgM antibodies. Importantly, all of them were immunosuppressed. HEV IgA testing was less sensitive than HEV IgM for HEV diagnosis. Conclusions: HEV infection can be overlooked in patients without HEV specific antibodies. Performing PCR is necessary to diagnose or exclude HEV infection in immunocompromised hosts. In immunocompetent patients, a screening based on HEV antibodies (IgG/IgM) is sufficient.
KW  - hepatitis E
KW  - HEV
KW  - serology
KW  - PCR
KW  - immunosuppression
Y1  - 2020
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/54423
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-544233
N1  - This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
VL  - 9
IS  - 137
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  -