hepatitis b core antibody immunoglobulin m in blood donors with a history of hepatitis b virus infection

conclusions hepatitis b core antibody immunoglobulin m positivity is different in healthy blood donors of different countries according to the prevalence of chronic hepatitis b and its vaccination. based on the current study findings, all positive samples of hepatitis b core antibody in iranian blood banks should be considered as candidates for occult hepatitis b not just the window period infected samples. objectives the current study aimed to look for hepatitis b core antibody immunoglobulin m in blood samples of iranian donors with a history of hepatitis b virus infection to detect window period infection. materials and methods eighty serum samples with hepatitis b core antibody were collected from 1000 healthy blood donors, forty of them had been positive for hepatitis b virus dna in authors’ previous study and were diagnosed as occult hepatitis b infection. all 80 samples were tested for hepatitis b core immunoglobulin m. results one thousand blood samples were collected from 64 (6.4%) female and 936 (93.6%) male subjects. none of the blood samples contained hepatitis b core immunoglobulin m. the study found no significant differences between male and female subjects in term of hbcab positivity. background hepatitis b is still an issue after blood transfusion. a reason could be the window period of hepatitis b infection in blood donors. in countries such as iran hepatitis b surface antigen enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) is the only test to detect the virus in blood donors. this procedure may miss the window period of hepatitis b infected donors.