HealthCareMagic is now Ask A Doctor - 24x7 | https://www.askadoctor24x7.com

I Had A Sex Relationship For One Time Then I

Posted on Sun, 22 Mar 2020

Question: i had a sex relationship for one time then i did the test , one of them was HCV Abs in USA and it came as weak positive like the attatched image then i did the PCR in the same lab and it came not detected , after that i did the HCV Abs more than 7 times all of the were negative .
What made the first result positive weak while the rest of the results are negative?

Follow up: Dr. Baranidharan Kuselan (0 minute later)

i had a sex relationship for one time then i did the test , one of them was HCV Abs in USA and it came as weak positive like the attatched image then i did the PCR in the same lab and it came not detected , after that i did the HCV Abs more than 7 times all of the were negative .
What made the first result positive weak while the rest of the results are negative?

Answered by Dr. Baranidharan Kuselan (33 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
False positive result

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for posting in HCM.
I am Dr.Barani.

HCV infection is diagnosed by antibody testing and RNA testing.
RNA test is the reliable one.
Antibody testing is used frequently for screening purpose.
There are many different methods of testing for HCV antibodies and false positive results do occur with these assays.
RIBA assay is the confirmatory antibody assay for HCV.
So if you are in doubt about the HCV status go for HCV RNA test which is more reliable.
Regards,
Dr.Barani

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D