Enas S Al Absi1, Duaa W Al-Sadeq1,2, Makiyeh Khalili3, Nadin Younes1, Nader Al-Dewik4,5,6,7, Sara K Abdelghany8, Somaia S Abouzid8, Asma A Al Thani1,8, Hadi M Yassine1,8, Peter V Coyle9, Gheyath K Nasrallah10,11. 1. Biomedical Research Center, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar. 2. College of Medicine, Member of QU Health, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar. 3. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar. 4. Clinical and Metabolic Genetics Section, Pediatrics Department, Hamad General Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar. 5. Qatar Medical Genetic Center and Interim Translational Research Institute, Hamad Medical Corporation, P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar. 6. College of Health and Life Science, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, P.O. Box 34110, Doha, Qatar. 7. Department of Pediatrics, Women's Wellness and Research Center, Hamad Medical Corporation, P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar. 8. Department of Biomedical Science, College of Health Sciences, Member of QU Health, Qatar University, Women's Science Building, C01, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar. 9. Virology Laboratory, Hamad Medical Corporation, P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar. 10. Biomedical Research Center, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar. gheyath.nasrallah@qu.edu.qa. 11. Department of Biomedical Science, College of Health Sciences, Member of QU Health, Qatar University, Women's Science Building, C01, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar. gheyath.nasrallah@qu.edu.qa.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The rapid growth of Qatar in the last two decades has attracted a large influx of immigrant workers who mostly come from HEV-hyperendemic countries. Thus, we aim to investigate the prevalence of HEV among acute non-A-C hepatitis patients in Qatar; and to evaluate the performance of four dominant commercial serological assays for HEV diagnosis. METHODS: 259 patients with non-A-C hepatitis were tested using the Wantai HEV-IgM, HEV-IgG, HEV-Ag ELISA kits, and the MP Biomedical HEV-Total Ab ELISA kit. ALT levels were tested and HEV RNA (viral loads) was performed using Taqman AmpliCube HEV RT-PCR kit (Mikrogen, Neuried, Germany). The performance of each kit was assessed according to the RT-PCR results. RESULTS: HEV-RNA was detected in 23.1% of the samples. Most of these HEV-RNA-positive cases belonged to non-Qatari residents from the Indian subcontinent; India, Pakistan, etc. HEV-Ag, HEV-IgM, HEV-IgG, HEV-Total Ab were detected in 5.56%, 8.65%, 32.1%, and 34.2% of all tested samples, respectively. Elevated ALT levels were highly correlated with the HEV-Ag, HEV-IgM, HEV-RNA but not with the HEV-IgG and HEV-Total Ab. Although HEV-Ag was very specific (100%), yet its sensitivity was poor (36.7%). HEV-IgM demonstrated the best second marker for diagnosis of acute HEV after RT-PCR as jugged by the overall performance parameters: specificity (96.2%), sensitivity (71.4%), PPV (83.3%), NPP (92.7%), agreement with RT-PCR (91.0%), and Kappa-value (0.71). CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated a high prevalence of HEV virus in Qatar, mostly among immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. The HEV-IgM represents the best marker for detecting the acute HEV infection, where RT-PCR cannot be performed.
BACKGROUND: The rapid growth of Qatar in the last two decades has attracted a large influx of immigrant workers who mostly come from HEV-hyperendemic countries. Thus, we aim to investigate the prevalence of HEV among acute non-A-C hepatitispatients in Qatar; and to evaluate the performance of four dominant commercial serological assays for HEV diagnosis. METHODS: 259 patients with non-A-C hepatitis were tested using the WantaiHEV-IgM, HEV-IgG, HEV-Ag ELISA kits, and the MP Biomedical HEV-Total Ab ELISA kit. ALT levels were tested and HEV RNA (viral loads) was performed using Taqman AmpliCube HEV RT-PCR kit (Mikrogen, Neuried, Germany). The performance of each kit was assessed according to the RT-PCR results. RESULTS:HEV-RNA was detected in 23.1% of the samples. Most of these HEV-RNA-positive cases belonged to non-Qatari residents from the Indian subcontinent; India, Pakistan, etc. HEV-Ag, HEV-IgM, HEV-IgG, HEV-Total Ab were detected in 5.56%, 8.65%, 32.1%, and 34.2% of all tested samples, respectively. Elevated ALT levels were highly correlated with the HEV-Ag, HEV-IgM, HEV-RNA but not with the HEV-IgG and HEV-Total Ab. Although HEV-Ag was very specific (100%), yet its sensitivity was poor (36.7%). HEV-IgM demonstrated the best second marker for diagnosis of acute HEV after RT-PCR as jugged by the overall performance parameters: specificity (96.2%), sensitivity (71.4%), PPV (83.3%), NPP (92.7%), agreement with RT-PCR (91.0%), and Kappa-value (0.71). CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated a high prevalence of HEV virus in Qatar, mostly among immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. The HEV-IgM represents the best marker for detecting the acute HEV infection, where RT-PCR cannot be performed.
Entities:
Keywords:
Non-A-C hepatitis; Prevalence; Qatar; RT-PCR; Test performance; Wantai ELISA
Authors: M S Balayan; A G Andjaparidze; S S Savinskaya; E S Ketiladze; D M Braginsky; A P Savinov; V F Poleschuk Journal: Intervirology Date: 1983 Impact factor: 1.763
Authors: Duaa W Al-Sadeq; Hadeel T Zedan; Nader Aldewik; Alaa Elkhider; Asalet Hicazi; Nadin Younes; Houssein H Ayoub; Laith Abu Raddad; Hadi M Yassine; Gheyath K Nasrallah Journal: IJID Reg Date: 2021-12-16