Using surveillance data to determine treatment rates and outcomes for patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection

Hepatology

Accepted Article (Accepted, unedited articles published online and citable. The final edited and typeset version of record will appear in future.)

Liver Injury and Regeneration

Sam Lattimore^1,*,Will Irving²,Sarah Collins¹,Celia Penman¹,Mary Ramsay¹, On behalf of the collaboration for the sentinel surveillance of blood-borne virus testing

DOI: 10.1002/hep.26926

Copyright © 2013 American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases

Accepted manuscript online: 9 NOV 2013 04:08AM EST
Manuscript Accepted: 5 NOV 2013
Manuscript Revised: 21 OCT 2013
Manuscript Received: 31 JUL 2013

Keywords: Hepatitis C; epidemiology; surveillance; treatment; England

ABSTRACT

Background & Aims: To develop and validate an algorithm to monitor rates of, and response to, treatment of patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) across England using routine laboratory HCV RNA testing data.

Methods: Hepatitis C testing activity between January 2002 and December011 was extracted from the local laboratory information systems of a sentinel network of 23 laboratories across England. An algorithm based on frequency of HCV RNA testing within a defined time period was designed to identify treated patients. Validation of the algorithm was undertaken for one centre by comparison with treatment data recorded in a clinical database managed by the Trent HCV study group.

Results: In total, 267,887 HCV-RNA test results from 100,640 individuals were extracted. Of these, 78.9% (79,360) tested positive for viral RNA, indicating an active infection, 20.8% (16,538) of whom had a repeat pattern of HCV-RNA testing suggestive of treatment-monitoring. Annual numbers of individuals treated increased rapidly from 468 in 2002, to 3,295 in 2009, but decreased to 3,110 in 2010. Approximately two thirds (63.3; 10,468) of those treated had results consistent with a sustained virological response, including 55.3% and 67.1% of those with a genotype-one and non-one virus, respectively. Validation against the Trent clinical database demonstrated that the algorithm was 95% sensitive and 93% specific in detecting treatment, and 100% sensitive and 93% specific for detecting treatment outcome.

Conclusions: Laboratory testing activity, collected through a sentinel surveillance programme has enabled the first country-wide analysis of treatment and response among HCV-infected individuals. Our approach provides a sensitive, robust, and sustainable method for monitoring service provision across England. (Hepatology 2013;)

Source