Farhat Kazmi, Hafiz Aamer, Sadia Iqbal, Saima Chaudhry, Mateen Izhar, Ayaz Ali Khan.
Sensitivity and Specificity of Saliva in Estimation of Anti-HCV Antibodies.
J Pak Dent Assoc Jan ;19(3):177-9.

OBJECTIVE: This study was done to assess the efficacy of saliva as a screening tool in Hepatitis C infection when collected in a sterile test tube by simple spitting process. Anti Hepatitis C Virus antibodies (Anti-HCV) were detected in salivary samples of patients and healthy controls without using any special salivary collection device . METHODOLOGY: Paired serum and oral fluid collections were obtained from 50 HCV positive cases and twenty five negative individuals. Saliva samples were collected in a sterile disposable plastic test tube by simple spitting of un-stimulated saliva by the study subjects. A modification of the serum HCV ELISA assay was developed to improve test accuracy for an oral fluid substrate. The presence or absence of anti-HCV antibodies in the blood serum was taken as gold standard against which anti-HCV levels in saliva were compared. RESULT: Overall sensitivity of saliva to detect Anti HCV antibodies was found to be 94.2% while specificity was 100%. CONCLUSION: This simple method of oral fluid collection proved to be an effective alternative to special collection Saliva can be used as a cost effective screening tool for initial screening of Hepatitis C infection in high risk populations.

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