[Anti-BHc determination in blood donors in São Paulo: should this test be adopted in Brazil?].

PURPOSE: to study the incidence of anti-HBc (core) as a surrogate marker for post-transfusion Non-A, Non-B Hepatitis (HNANB-PT) among blood donors in Sao Paulo, Brazil. TYPE: prospective, screening all blood donors from September to December, 1989 (nr. 2,773 donors). PLACE: Sirio-Libanes Hospital and 9 de Julho Hospital (Sao Paulo). PATIENTS: a total of 2,773 donors, 84% male and 16% female. METHOD: the tests used were competitive ELISA for Anti-HBc. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: the repeated rah reactivity (RR) was 10.2% among all donors, with a higher incidence in males than in females (10.9% x 6.8% p less than 0.05 6y X2). Only 4.5% were borderlines, and 94.5% showed an absorbance/cut-off ratio less than 0.9. CONCLUSIONS: despite the lack of prospective studies correlating HNANB-PT to surrogate markers (e.g. ALT and anti-HBc) in this country, the high incidence of anti-HBc in donors allows to conclude that it might be as high as reported in other countries. Although the costs related to the adoption of this test, its indication in other countries and its association with the newly-developed specific test (anti-HCV) supports the idea of anti-HBc as a screening test for HNANB-PT in Brazil, at least in the most developed blood centers in the country.