One-step diagnosis strategy together with multidisciplinary telematics referral perform an effective approach for identifying and treating patients with active Hepatitis C infection
Autor: | Enrique Ortega González, Purificación Rubio Cuevas, Miguel García-Deltoro, Neus Gómez-Muñoz, Moisés Diago Madrid, Miriam Torrecillas, María Dolores Ocete, Concepción Gimeno Cardona |
---|---|
Rok vydání: | 2021 |
Předmět: |
Male
Care process medicine.medical_specialty Referral Hepatitis C virus Specialties of internal medicine Viremia Hepacivirus medicine.disease_cause Antiviral Agents Serology Multidisciplinary approach Interquartile range Internal medicine HCV-cAg medicine Telematics referral Humans One-step Active hepatitis Hepatology business.industry Two-step General Medicine Hepatitis C Antibodies medicine.disease Hepatitis C Telemedicine RC581-951 Female Hepatitis C Antigens business |
Zdroj: | Annals of Hepatology, Vol 27, Iss 1, Pp 100542-(2022) |
ISSN: | 1665-2681 |
Popis: | Introduction and objectives Implementation of a one-step strategy for diagnosis of active Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection would encourage the early diagnosis and reduce the time to access antiviral treatments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a HCV one-step diagnosis compared to the traditional two-step protocol in terms of the time required for patients to be seen by specialists and the time taken to start antiviral treatment. Material and methods A comparative study was carried out to assess two diagnostic algorithms (one-step and two-step) for active HCV infection. Serological markers were quantified using the same serum sample to determine both anti-HCV antibodies (HCV-Ab) and HCV core antigen (HCV-cAg) by Architect i2000 SR kit. In this period, a multidisciplinary procedure was started for telematics referral of viremic patients. Results One-step approach reduced the time required for patient HCV diagnosis, referral to a specialist, access to treatment, and eliminated the loss of patients to follow-up. Significant differences were observed between one-step and two-step diagnosis methods in the time required for patients to be seen by a specialist (18 days [Interquartile range (IQR) = 14–42] versus 107 days [IQR = 62–148]) and for the initiation of treatment (54 days [IQR = 43–75] versus 200 days [IQR = 116–388]), mainly for patients with advanced fibrosis (35 days [IQR = 116–388] versus 126 days [IQR = 152–366]). Conclusions Use of HCV-cAg has proven to be a useful tool for screening patients with active hepatitis C. The development of a multidisciplinary protocol for the communication of results improved the efficiency of the care process. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
Externí odkaz: |