Screening for Hepatitis C Virus Infection: Appendix Table 1. Results of Screening Tests for Hepatitis C Virus and Usual Interpretation

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ELISA Results	RIBA Results	PCR Results	Interpretation
Positive	Positive or indeterminate	Positive	Active or chronic HCV infection
Positive	Positive	Negative	Cleared HCV infection if PCR persistently negative
Positive	Negative, intermediate, or not performed	Negative	Cleared HCV infection or false-positive results on ELISA
Positive	Negative	Not usually done if RIBA results are negative	False-positive results on ELISA
Negative	Not performed if ELISA results are negative	Not usually done if ELISA results are negative (unless suspicion for acute infection is high)	No evidence of past exposure to HCV
Negative	Not performed if ELISA results are negative	Positive (test is not usually done in clinical settings unless suspicion for infection is high)	Early (<7-8 wk) HCV infection or false-negative results
* ELISA = enzyme-linked immunoassay; HCV = hepatitis C virus; PCR = polymerase chain reaction; RIBA = recombinant immunoblot assay.