Evaluation of HCV-Core Antigen in Diagnosis of Chronic Hepatitis C Patients under Direct-Acting Antiviral Treatment

Objectives: Recently, with the use of direct-acting antivirals (DAA) for treating chronic hepatitis C (CHC), the success rate has exceeded 90%. The implementation of these strong therapies has reduced the role of monitoring therapy with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-RNA tests. The current study compares the HCV-core antigen test (HCV-Ag) with HCV-RNA in terms of correlation, effectiveness and cost in patients who started DAA and to evaluate the usability of HCV-Ag as a routine laboratory test. Materials and Methods: This study includes 76 patients with CHC. Patients with positive HCV-RNA, over 18 years old and who will initiate DAA are included. HCV-Ag level was studied in all samples by using ARCHITECT core antigen measurement Abbott method. HCV-RNA and anti-HCV levels compared with HCV-Ag levels. Results: Of the 76 patients, 44 (57%) were males, 48 (63%) were treatment experienced and 21 (27%) were cirrhotic. All patients were started with DAAs. When compared before and after treatment, HCV-RNA level, HCV-Ag level was found to be significantly different (p<0.001). Before treatment, HCV-RNA and HCV-Ag levels were found to be positive correlations (correlation coefficient: 0.419). Conclusion: The use of DAAs in HCV therapy has eliminated the need for response-guided therapy. It has been demonstrated in the study that HCV-Ag measurement is very successful and cost effective in detecting viremic patients and evaluating virological response, which are the two most important factors in the management of CHC.