Rapid point-of-care first-line screening tests for Hepatitis B

September's issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology investigates rapid point-of-care first-line screening tests for Hepatitis B infection.

There are 350,000,000 people worldwide chronically infected with Hepatitis B, with four million acute infections annually.

With infection concentrated in hard-to-reach populations and low resource settings, rapid point-of-care tests offer an efficient screening alternative to laboratory tests.

Dr Nitika Pant Pai and colleagues from Canada conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate accuracy of rapid point-of-care tests screening for Hepatitis B.

There were 2 reviewers that searched four databases, critiqued quality.

In subgroup 1, the pooled sensitivity was 95%

American Journal of Gastroenterology

A hierarchical Bayesian meta-analysis correcting for imperfect reference standards was used.

Based on components of the antigen–antibody response, 17 studies were stratified into 3 subgroups.

The first subgroup included Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) tests, the second subgroup included anti-HBsAg tests, and the third included HBs+eAg tests.

The researchers found that pooled estimates on individual tests with sufficient data.

In subgroup 1, the pooled sensitivity was 95%, and specificity was 99.5%.

The team found that the Determine test reported a pooled sensitivity of 98%, and a specificity of 99.9%.

In subgroup 2, sensitivity was 93%, specificity was 93%, and in subgroup 3, the Binax test showed a sensitivity of 96%, and a specificity of 99.8%.

Dr Pai's team commented, "HBsAg tests, including Determine, and the HBs+eAg test, Binax showed high accuracy. Improvements in sensitivity of antibody-based tests will enhance their potential for global first-line screening."