TY - JOUR T1 - Oral fluid as a medium for the detection of hepatitis B surface antigen. JF - J Med Virol Y1 - 2005 A1 - Veronik Hutse A1 - Verhaegen, Els A1 - De Cock, Liesbet A1 - Sophie Quoilin A1 - Vandenberghe, Hans A1 - Horsmans, Yves A1 - Michielsen, Peter A1 - Van Damme, Pierre A1 - Van Vlierberghe, Hans A1 - Claeys, Françoise A1 - Vranckx, Robert A1 - Herman Van Oyen KW - Hepatitis B KW - Hepatitis B Antibodies KW - Hepatitis B Surface Antigens KW - Hepatitis B virus KW - Humans KW - Saliva KW - specimen handling AB -

Currently viral antigens and antibodies are detected by traditional serological tests. However, the introduction of oral fluid as an alternative medium would allow other alternatives. The collection of oral fluid is, in comparison with venepuncture, less invasive, less painful, less expensive (i.e., no trained personal required), and safe (prevention of needle stick injuries). Also large numbers of samples can be collected easily for epidemiological purposes. Forty-three HBsAg positive and seventy-three HBsAg negative paired serum/oral fluid samples were tested. They were collected from patients attending university hospitals. The oral fluid samples were collected using the Oracol collection device and they were subjected to an IgG quantification assay to ensure their quality and quantity. The detection of HBsAg in oral fluid was carried out using a modified ETI-MAK-4 ELISA. The validation of this oral fluid test gave a sensitivity and specificity of 90.7% and 100%, respectively. The modified ETI-MAK-4 ELISA is a suitable test for oral fluid samples collected by the Oracol collection device for epidemiological purposes.

VL - 77 CP - 1 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16032713?dopt=Abstract M3 - 10.1002/jmv.20413 ER -