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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, May 2003, p. 492-494, Vol. 10, No. 3
1071-412X/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.10.3.492-494.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Anti-Hepatitis A Virus Immunoglobulin M Antibodies in Urine Samples for Rapid Diagnosis of Outbreaks

Institute for Tropical Medicine "Pedro Kourí," Department of Virology, National Reference Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis, Havana City, Cuba

Received 12 April 2002/ Returned for modification 6 August 2002/ Accepted 26 November 2002

The main goal of this study was to test the feasibility of using urine for diagnosing hepatitis A virus (HAV) infections. A correlation of 90.78% between the test results of urine and serum samples was obtained. Four outbreaks of hepatitis A were confirmed by testing only urine samples. The levels of anti-HAV immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies in urine samples remained stable during 6 months of storage at -70°C but decreased when the samples were stored at 4°C. The results of tests of samples obtained 2 and 6 months after infection suggested that IgM levels decline more rapidly in urine than in serum.