RESUMO
A French national quality control study for the serological and molecular diagnosis of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) was organized. Total HDV antibodies were properly detected by all laboratories; 8/14 laboratories failed to detect low titers of IgM, and 6/11 failed to quantify and/or underestimated the RNA viral load in several samples. These discrepancies are likely related to the molecular diversity of HDV.
Assuntos
Hepatite D/diagnóstico , Hepatite D/imunologia , Vírus Delta da Hepatite/imunologia , Anticorpos Anti-Hepatite/imunologia , Hepatite D/virologia , Humanos , Imunoglobulina M/imunologia , Patologia Molecular/métodos , Controle de Qualidade , Testes Sorológicos/métodos , Carga Viral/imunologiaRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is a satellite of HBV and needs this latter's envelope for its morphogenesis and propagation. An estimated 5-20% of HBV-infected patients are also infected with HDV. No studies have ever been performed to determine the presence of HDV in follicular fluid (FF) and semen of HDV-infected patients. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the presence of HDV markers in the FF or in the semen of two HDV-infected patients. DESIGN: Two unrelated HDV-infected patients, a woman and a man pursuing in vitro fertilization (IVF), participated in this study. FF was collected after analysis of oocyte retrieval. The supernatant of seminal plasma (SP) and the final pellet (FP) were fractionated from freshly ejaculated semen. Serological and molecular markers of HDV infection were searched for in these different samples. RESULTS: The woman was infected with an HDV-7 genotype strain and her HDV plasma viral load (VL) was 6 log copies/mL. HDV antibodies and RNA were also detected in the FF, however the RNA VL value there was lower by more than 4 log. The man was infected with an HDV-1 strain and his plasma VL was 6.7 log copies/mL. Total anti-HDV antibodies were positive in the serum, in the SP and in the FP, while IgM were detected only in the serum. However, HDV RNA was negative in the SP and in the FP. CONCLUSION: HDV markers can be found in the follicular fluid or in the semen of infected patients.