Methods of determining chronic hepatitis C infection
AssigneeClinical Reference Laboratory, Inc.
InventorRobert L. Stout
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods for determining chronic hepatitis C infection are provided by the present invention. The methods generally involve determining the optical density of fluid samples which have tested positive for hepatitis C infection using an antibody-based assay. The optical density can then be used to determine in a predictive or probability-based manner whether the fluid sample contains chronic hepatitis C infection or whether the fluid sample merely contains antibodies to hepatitis C infection without resorting to costly molecular detection methods. Thus, the present invention permits differentiation between individuals who have cleared hepatitis C infection but still test positive in an antibody-based assay from individuals having chronic hepatitis C infection.
Claims30
A method of identifying individuals having a certain probability of having chronic HCV infection comprising the steps of:
- obtaining a fluid sample from the individual;
- performing an HCV antibody-based assay on said sample;
- determining the optical density of said sample;
- and
- using said determined optical density to identify individuals having said certain probability of having chronic HCV infection.
A method of predicting whether an individual providing a fluid sample testing positive for HCV antibodies has chronic HCV infection, said method comprising the steps of:
- measuring the optical density of said fluid sample;
- and
- correlating said measured optical density with the probability that the individual providing the fluid sample has chronic HCV infection.
A method of determining the probability that an individual testing positive for HCV infection using an antibody-based assay is infected with chronic HCV, said method comprising the steps of:
- obtaining a fluid sample from the individual;
- contacting said fluid sample with HCV antibodies to form a solution;
- determining the optical density of said solution;
- and
- comparing said determined optical density with a set of standard optical density values correlated with probabilities of chronic HCV infection.
A method of testing for chronic HCV infection comprising the steps of:
- obtaining a fluid sample;
- performing an antibody-based assay on said sample;
- and
- measuring the optical density of said sample.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.