Abstract: | The authors have studied the effectiveness of the first Soviet test system for the diagnosis of hepatitis A by means of the enzyme immunoassay (Diagn-A-Hep), developed at the Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephalitides, Moscow, under the conditions of different epidemic situations. In the process of this trial the high specificity and sensitivity of this test system, established earlier in the certification and commission trials, have been confirmed. Diagn-A-Hep has proved to be highly effective in the diagnosis of acute forms of hepatitis A and permitted its detection in patients during the incubation period, as well as in patients with anicteric and asymptomatic subclinical forms. Besides clinical diagnosis, the kit Diagn-A-Hep may be used in large-scale seroepidemiological surveys of the immune structure of the population, as well as in detection of HAV in different material under test. |