Can the nucleic acid amplification test (NAT) be an alternative to the serologic tests? A prospective study, the results of 18,200 blood donors from the Turkish Red Crescent.

Aim: Serologic tests having high sensitivity and specificity are used in order to prevent contamination with infectious agents from blood and blood products for transfusion safety. The present serologic tests have problems such as low sensitivity and weak detection capacity of infectious agents in the "window period". We aimed to test the use of NAT (Nucleic Acid Amplification Test) in routine blood screening in the Blood Bank.

Are isolated anti-HBc blood donors in high risk group? The detection of HBV DNA in isolated anti-HBc cases with nucleic acid amplification test (NAT) based on transcription-mediated amplification (TMA) and HBV discrimination.

Aim: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) can be transmitted by blood transfusions even so using serological tests having high sensitivity and specificity. We aimed to detect HBV DNA in isolated Anti-HBc donors and show if they have transfusion risk or not.

Method: We investigated Anti-Hbc and Anti-HBs in serum samples of 12858 HBs-Ag negative blood donors who were applied to the Turkish Redcrescent between June 2007 and October 2008 by the Micro ELISA kit (Hepanostica ultra HBsAg, Bio Meriux, France).

Trends in hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus among blood donors over 16 years in Turkey.

Background: We document in the present study the trends over the sixteen years in HBV and HCV seroprevalence among blood donors in Turkish populations.

Methods: In this study, serologic test results of whole blood (n = 6.240.