Comparison of electrochemiluminescence and ELISA methods in the detection of blood borne pathogens in Gabon

Objective To assess the performances of Cobas 6000 e601 and EVOLIS BioRad in the detection of HIV, HBV and HCV in blood donors in Libreville (Gabon). Methods A cross-sectional investigation was conducted in July 2017 in a total of 2 000 blood donors recruited at the National Blood transfusion Center, Libreville Gabon. Among them, 363 donors were selected to compare the performances of COBAS 6000 e601 (electro-chemiluminescence) and EVOLIS BioRad in detecting HIV, HBV and HCV using Cohen's kappa coefficient. Results Both methods yielded similar results for the detection of HIV and HBsAg. A very good agreement of 93.39% and an excellent agreement of 98.90% were obtained for the detection of HIV and HbsAg, with kappa values of 0.80 and 0.98, respectively. The observed agreement of 91.86% was found for the detection of HCV, which gave a fair agreement between the two methods with kappa = 0.33. Conclusions The two evaluation methods showed a similar performance in the detection of HIV, HBV. However, given the high rate of intra and inter-genotypes recombination known for HIV and HBV, more robust techniques of detection such as polymerase chain reaction should be used to prevent post-transfusion contaminations.