Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Oct 18, 2015; 7(23): 2482-2491
Published online Oct 18, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i23.2482
Detection of hepatitis B virus infection: A systematic review
Mallika Ghosh, Srijita Nandi, Shrinwanti Dutta, Malay Kumar Saha
Mallika Ghosh, Srijita Nandi, Shrinwanti Dutta, Malay Kumar Saha, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata 700010, India
Author contributions: Ghosh M, Nandi S, Dutta S and Saha MK contributed equally to the work; all conceptualized and designed the review, drafted the manuscript, reviewed and approved the final manuscript as submitted.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare that they have no competing interest.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at sahamk@yahoo.com. No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Malay Kumar Saha, PhD, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P-33, C.I.T. Road, Scheme XM, Beleghata, Kolkata 700010, India. sahamk@yahoo.com
Telephone: +91-94-33081013 Fax: +91-33-23632398
Received: April 28, 2015
Peer-review started: May 6, 2015
First decision: July 29, 2015
Revised: August 18, 2015
Accepted: September 29, 2015
Article in press: September 30, 2015
Published online: October 18, 2015
Processing time: 173 Days and 20.5 Hours
Abstract

AIM: To review published methods for detection of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.

METHODS: A thorough search on Medline database was conducted to find original articles describing different methods or techniques of detection of HBV, which are published in English in last 10 years. Articles outlining methods of detection of mutants or drug resistance were excluded. Full texts and abstracts (if full text not available) were reviewed thoroughly. Manual search of references of retrieved articles were also done. We extracted data on different samples and techniques of detection of HBV, their sensitivity (Sn), specificity (Sp) and applicability.

RESULTS: A total of 72 studies were reviewed. HBV was detected from dried blood/plasma spots, hepatocytes, ovarian tissue, cerumen, saliva, parotid tissue, renal tissue, oocytes and embryos, cholangiocarcinoma tissue, etc. Sensitivity of dried blood spot for detecting HBV was > 90% in all the studies. In case of seronegative patients, HBV DNA or serological markers have been detected from hepatocytes or renal tissue in many instances. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and Chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA) are most commonly used serological tests for detection. CLIA systems are also used for quantitation. Molecular techniques are used qualitatively as well as for quantitative detection. Among the molecular techniques version 2.0 of the CobasAmpliprep/CobasTaqMan assay and Abbott’s real time polymerase chain reaction kit were found to be most sensitive with a lower detection limit of only 6.25 IU/mL and 1.48 IU/mL respectively.

CONCLUSION: Serological and molecular assays are predominant and reliable methods for HBV detection. Automated systems are highly sensitive and quantify HBV DNA and serological markers for monitoring.

Keywords: Chemiluminescent immunoassay; Serology; Automated detection; Molecular assay; Hepatitis B virus

Core tip: The article was aimed to review published methods of detection of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. A thorough search on medline database was conducted and 72 studies were included. It was observed that HBV can be detected reliably from dried blood spot (sensitivity > 90%). Serological and Molecular assays are predominant and reliable methods. Chemiluminescent immunoassay is more sensitive than Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Rapid tests are useful for screening. Real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), branched DNA probe assays are principal methods for quantitation. Automated systems are more sensitive compared to in house assays. Abbott real time PCR was found to be most sensitive with a lower detection limit of only 1.48 IU/mL.