TY - JOUR
T1 - External quality assessment for the molecular detection of Hepatitis C virus
AU - Chalker, Victoria
AU - Rossouw, A.
AU - Mee, Z.
AU - Patel, P.
AU - Vaughan, H.
AU - James, V. L.A.
PY - 2007/6
Y1 - 2007/6
N2 - Background, objectives and study design: External quality assessment (EQA) panels were distributed internationally by UK NEQAS for Microbiology to 159 participants for the detection, quantification and genotyping of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) in freeze-dried plasma from 2000 to 2004. The results were analysed to determine the level of standardisation of qualitative detection, quantitative detection and genotyping. Results: The accurate detection of HCV in the panels varied from 86.9% to 100%. Four genotypes were distributed with the panels and there was no significant difference in the detection of different genotypes of HCV by participants. Further analysis indicated most variation occurred in quantification of HCV at lower concentrations and from 0% to 14.8% reported quantitative values outside 0.5 log10 of the median value. In addition, three negative specimens were distributed and false positives were found to be rare (0.9-2.2%) with all methods included in the study. Conclusion: The laboratory detection of HCV in plasma EQA specimens was varied, with decreasing parity of quantification at lower concentrations of HCV. False positives and negatives were rare, irrespective of the genotype under test.
AB - Background, objectives and study design: External quality assessment (EQA) panels were distributed internationally by UK NEQAS for Microbiology to 159 participants for the detection, quantification and genotyping of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) in freeze-dried plasma from 2000 to 2004. The results were analysed to determine the level of standardisation of qualitative detection, quantitative detection and genotyping. Results: The accurate detection of HCV in the panels varied from 86.9% to 100%. Four genotypes were distributed with the panels and there was no significant difference in the detection of different genotypes of HCV by participants. Further analysis indicated most variation occurred in quantification of HCV at lower concentrations and from 0% to 14.8% reported quantitative values outside 0.5 log10 of the median value. In addition, three negative specimens were distributed and false positives were found to be rare (0.9-2.2%) with all methods included in the study. Conclusion: The laboratory detection of HCV in plasma EQA specimens was varied, with decreasing parity of quantification at lower concentrations of HCV. False positives and negatives were rare, irrespective of the genotype under test.
KW - External quality assessment
KW - Hepatitis C virus
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34248639311&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jcv.2005.10.018
DO - 10.1016/j.jcv.2005.10.018
M3 - Article
C2 - 17500030
AN - SCOPUS:34248639311
SN - 1386-6532
VL - 39
SP - 141
EP - 144
JO - Journal of Clinical Virology
JF - Journal of Clinical Virology
IS - 2
ER -