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2 - Antibody to hepatitis B core antigen

from Section 1 - Agents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2010

By
Joan O'Riordan
Edited by
John A. J. Barbara ,
Fiona A. M. Regan  and
Marcela Contreras
Joan O'Riordan
Affiliation:
Consultant Haematologist, Irish Blood Transfusion Service National Blood Centre, Dublin, Ireland
John A. J. Barbara
Affiliation:
University of the West of England, Bristol
Fiona A. M. Regan
Affiliation:
HNSBT and Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, London
Marcela Contreras
Affiliation:
University of the West of England, Bristol
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Summary

Introduction

In the mid-1980s some countries introduced blood donor screening for antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) as a surrogate test for non-A, non-B hepatitis (Aymard et al., 1986; Koziol et al., 1986). Once anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody screening was implemented, anti-HBc testing was retained to reduce the risk of hepatitis B transmission and to detect populations at high risk of HIV infection. With data documenting the declining efficacy of anti-HBc as a surrogate marker for the prevention of HIV infection (Busch et al., 1997), anti-HBc screening has been retained to detect the rare hepatitis B virus (HBV) infectious, HBsAg negative donation (Busch, 1998). On a global level the frequency of anti-HBc is proportional to the prevalence of HBV in the population, with the highest prevalence rates in Asia and Africa, moderate rates in South and Central America and Southern Europe and lowest rates in Northern Europe and North America (Busch, 1998).

With the advent of nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT) of blood donations for HCV and HIV in North America and in many European countries, the role of anti-HBc screening and of mini-pool HBV DNA NAT is being investigated (Kleinman and Busch, 2001).

Hepatitis B virus serology

Please refer back to Chapter 1.

In general, in the immune response to hepatitis B infection, antibodies to the core of hepatitis B virus (IgM class followed by IgG) are the first antibodies produced and may be detected a few days after the appearance of HBsAg.

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Information
Transfusion Microbiology , pp. 25 - 34
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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