[Study of the effectiveness of the method of the nest polymerase chain reaction and the field of its use in hepatitis A diagnosis]. / Issledovanie éffektivnosti i oblasti primeneniia metoda gnezdovoi PTSR pri diagnostike gepatita A.

To determine the causative agent of hepatitis A in the blood of patients, we developed the method of the nest polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with reverse transcription. For the comparative evaluation of the diagnostic efficacy of the nest PCR and the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) serum samples and mononuclear blood cells obtained from 15 patients with diagnosed hepatitis A and from 33 patients having signs and carrying markers of other form of hepatitis were analyzed. On the whole, the method of PCR confirmed the results of EIA and in some cases exceeded it in sensitivity. In addition, hepatitis A virus RNA was detected in the blood of a clinically healthy person having had a contact with a hepatitis A patient. The PCR data were shown to correlate with the activity of liver amino transferases. The results obtained in this study indicate that the field of the use of PCR in the analysis of hepatitis A virus may include cases of mixed infection and virus carriership.