Abstract

A comparative study on the detection rate of HBsAg according to various methods; enzyme immunoassay, indirect hemagglutination, reverse passive hemagglutination and counterelectrophoresis methods. Study subjects consist of 289 hospital patient samples requested for HBsAg tests, 146 hospital personnel Seoul National University Hospital and 397 pupils from an elementary school in Kangwondo. The sensitivity and specificity of these methods were also evaluated using 100 HBsAg positive samples confirmed by radioimmunoassay. The results are summarized as follows; 1) The HBsAg positive cases in 289 patients were 64 (22.1%) by EIA, 63 (21.8%) by IHA, 61 (21.1%) by RPHA, 12 (4.2%) by CEP. 2) Of the 146 hospital personnel of SNUH, only 2 persons were HBsAg positive by four methods. 3) The HBsAg positive cases in 397 pupils of an elementary schcol were 46 (11.6%) by IHA, 42 (10.6%) by RPHA. 4) Of the 100 HBsAg positive samples confirmed by RIA, 100 by EIA, 99 by IHA, 96 by RPHA and 25 by CEP were positive. 5) Of the 200 HBsAg negative samples confirmed by RIA, none were positive by the four methods.