Objective: To evaluate the quality of the ELISA diagnostic kits for detecting hepatitis E virus (HEV) specific IgG antibody.
Methods: Five diagnostic kits (WT, GD, HM, GeneLabs and KH) for anti-HEV IgG were assayed by detecting HEV IgG in the HEV diagnostic reference sera from 24 positive cases and 30 negative cases. 42 cases clinical suspect patients with hepatitis E from Ditan hospital in Beijing in 1994 to 1995 and 230 normal persons' sera from Chengdu city, Sichuan province in September in 2005.
Results: The conformity rates of positive and negative sera was 95.83% (23) and 96.67% (29) for WT kit, 87.50% (21) and 100% (30) for GD kit, 87.50% (21) and 96.67% (29) for HM kit, 66.67% (16) and 100% (30) for GeneLabs kit, 45.83% (11) and 100% (30) for KH kit for detecting anti-HEV positive and negative reference sera, respectively. The five kits were used to detect anti-HEV IgG among 42 clinical suspect patients with hepatitis E and 230 normal persons' sera, The positive rate was 97.62% (41) and 31.74% (73) by WT, 100% (42) and 17.39% (40) by GD kit, 97.62% (41) and 23.91% (55) by HM kit, 90.48% (38) and 7.83% (18) by GeneLabs kit, 90.48% (38) and 3.48% (8) by KH, respectively.
Conclusion: The positive rates of all the 5 kits were over 90% and had a very high conformity in detecting anti-HEV IgG in clinical patient with hepatitis E, positive rates of 3.48% to 31.74% were found in detecting the normal persons' sera. The research showed insufficiency of the ELISA kits for epidemiological survey of HEV infection in population.