Hepatitis C virus diagnostics: technology, clinical applications and impacts.

Infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) can cause several significant health problems. Sensitive and specific assays for antibodies to HCV are available to identify and confirm individuals infected with HCV. Evaluation of the clinical impact of HCV infection in a patient includes measuring liver biochemistries and possibly liver biopsy. Molecular assays such as HCV genotype identification and qualitative/quantitative HCV RNA analyses may be valuable in considerations of prognosis and therapy. Further refinement of antibody screening and confirmatory assays and standardization of molecular testing are necessary to optimize testing and thus fully characterize the diagnosis of HCV infection.