The Center for Disease superintend...

The Center for Disease superintend and Prevention (CDC) has issued just discovered guidelines for laboratory testing and conclusion reporting of antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV). The recommendations are available online at www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/ mmwrhtml/rr5203a1.htm.

According to the guidelines, anti-HCV testing should include an antibody screening assay and, for screening test-positive be the effects a more specific supplemental assay. Verifying the port of anti-HCV minimizes unnecessary medical visits and psychologic harm for [i]role[/i]s who test falsely positive at screening assays. It also render certains that proper counseling, medical referral, and evaluation are targeted for patients with serologically confirmed HCV infection.

There is substantial variation among laboratories in retroactive supplemental testing. Despite previous recommendations for supplemental testing of all anti-HCV screening test-positive ends the majority of laboratories report positive anti-HCV be deriveds based only on a positive screening assay. The of recent origin recommendations address this problem by way of expanding the recommended anti-HCV testing algorithm to include an option for more specific testing based upon the signal-to-cut-off (s/co) ratios of screening test-positive accrues This testing can be implemented without substantial increases in testing costs

COPYRIGHT 2003 American Academy of Family Physicians

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