Identifying hepatitis C virus: endemic areas and estimating the viral antibody prevalence based on the prevalence of ALT elevation
Journal
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Journal Volume
103
Journal Issue
9
Pages
917-923
Date Issued
2009
Author(s)
Abstract
To evaluate the validity of predicting the prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) based on the prevalence of alanine transaminase (ALT) elevation (>40IU/l), we conducted a community-based study. In total, 56698 individuals underwent health examinations in 2004. Another 43738 subjects in 2005 were the validation set. It should be valid to predict the prevalence of anti-HCV in villages (>25 participants) by the prevalence of ALT elevation. The equation was anti-HCV (%)=(% of ALT elevation - 6%)/65% (n=487 villages, R(2)=0.58). Villages with prevalence of ALT elevation >13% had a high probability of being HCV-endemic (anti-HCV >10%). The sensitivity and specificity were 73.6 and 74.6%, respectively. By the validation set, the positive and negative predictive values were 52.0% and 79.4%, respectively. Clinical and epidemiological deductions of the equation were that baseline of ALT elevation was 6% and two-thirds of anti-HCV-positive subjects had elevated ALT.
SDGs
Type
journal article