Usefulness of NS5 Antibody Measurement in Recombinant Immunoblot Assay (RIBA) as a Clinical Test for Confirmation of Asymptomatic HCV Infection

• Published in: JOURNAL OF THE JAPANESE ASSOCIATION OF RURAL MEDICINE Vol. 54; no. 4; pp. 640 - 643
• Main Authors: MINATO, Yukihito, MOCHIZUKI, Naoko, KOSHIBU, Keiji, HATTORI, Kouji, SHIIGAI, Tatsuo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese; English
• Published: THE JAPANESE ASSOCIATION OF RURAL MEDICINE 2005
• ISSN: 0468-2513; 1349-7421
• DOI: 10.2185/jjrm.54.640

Using RIBA NS5 antibody was measured in 31 HCV RNA positive serotype 1 patients, and the serum levels of ALT were monitored for an average of three years. As a result, 22 asymptomatic HCV carriers (group A) were found to be NS5 antibody negative (-) and nine to be NS5 antibody positive (4+). By contrast, in 25 patients with chronic inactive hepatitis C (group B), three patients were NS5 antibody negative (-), and 22 patients were NS5 antibody positive (4+), indicating a significant difference between the two groups (p<0.01 chi square test). Furthermore, in group A, 22 NS5 antibody (-) patients (group I) maintained normal serum levels of ALT significantly longer than the 9 NS5 antibody (4+) patients (group II) (p<0.01, Kaplan-Meier Method). Therefore, the measurement of NS5 antibody of RIBA was clinically useful in identifing asymptomatic (HCVRNA positive, serotype 1) HCV carriers.