Hepatitis and Liver Cancer: A National Strategy for Prevention and Control of Hepatitis B and C

Positive	Positive or not done	Positive	Current acute or chronic HCV infection	Evaluate for chronic infection and liver disease
Positive	Indeterminate	Not done	Not known; possible false-positive anti-HCV or recovery from past HCV infection	Test for HCV RNA or repeat anti-HCV testing
Positive	Indeterminate	Positive	Current acute or chronic HCV infection	Evaluate for chronic infection and liver disease
Positive	Indeterminate	Negative	Probably not currently infected;^a possible false-positive anti-HCV or recovery from past HCV infection	Repeat HCV RNA or repeat anti-HCV testing
^aA single negative HCV-RNA result cannot determine infection status, inasmuch as a person might have intermittent viremia. Abbreviations: anti-HCV, antibody to HCV; EIA, enzyme immunoassay; CIA, enhanced chemiluminescence immunoassay; RIBA, recombinant immunoblot assay; RNA, ribonucleic acid; s/co ratio, signal-to-cutoff ratio. SOURCE: Adapted from Ghany et al., 2009. Diagnosis, management, and treatment of Hepatitis C: An update. Hepatology 49(4):1335-1374. Copyright 2009. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; CDC, 2009e.