Evaluation of the Beckman Coulter Access Anti-HCV Assay as an Aid in the Diagnosis of HCV Infection: EU Clinical Trial Protocol

The study involved a multicenter, prospective and retrospective collection of samples, and testing of samples with the investigational Access anti-HCV assay. Subject sample enrollment was targeted to be approximately 8,000 specimens including approximately 6,000 blood donors and 1,500 hospitalized individuals for the specificity populations and 500 confirmed HCV Ab positive patients for the sensitivity population, required by European Union's Common Technical Specification for clinical validation of in vitro diagnostic medical devices and marketing needs to align with competitor submissions. Retrospective collection included HCV Ab positive genotyped samples from existing vendor collections meeting all inclusion/exclusion criteria.

All samples collected were anonymized, leftover, remnant samples and therefore member state or Institutional Review Board/Independent Ethics Committee approval was not required. Diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were evaluated for sample antibody status determined by a CE-marked anti-HCV assay (Abbott ARCHITECT anti-HCV assay for hospitalized patient and positive samples or Abbott PRISM HCV assay for blood donor samples) and Immunoblot testing with FUJIREBIO INNO-LIA HCV Score, if necessary. HCV RNA Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) or genotyping was requested or was available on all Immunoblot positive samples for further characterization, but these results were not used to determine final antibody status.

A portion of hospitalized patient samples (target 700/1500) and the majority of positive HCV Ab samples were collected and stored frozen prior to testing. A targeted portion of 800 hospitalized patient samples, 30 known positive samples and all blood donor samples were collected and tested fresh. Fresh blood donor and fresh hospitalized patient samples were used to determine false Initial Reactive Rate (IRR).