LAUSR

the HCV+ monoinfected group we evaluated the assays HCV AgAb (Monolisa TM HCV AgAb ULTRA and Murex HCV AgAb. This analysis showed a specificity of 99.7% for the AgAb test (Monolisa TM HCV AgAb ULTRA and 95.95% for the Murex HCV AgAb test, and a sensitivity of 97.5% for both. Subsequently, we evaluated the use of DBS for the diagnosis of HCV+/HIV coinfected individuals. In 961 subjects divided into HCV+, HIV+, HIV/HCV+ coinfected and negative healthy controls. Serum and DBS samples were compared using the antiHCV test (Murex HCV AgAb). Sensitivity was higher than 93% using DBS in the HCV+ group, whereas for the HIV/HCV+ coinfected group we found 83.3%. The specificity reached 100% in HIVinfected individuals and negative healthy controls. When we considered only HCV RNA+ samples, the sensitivity in DBS was 98.3% in HCV+ individuals and 91.6% in the HIV/HCV+ coinfected group, especially the ones with undetectable HIV viral load (lower than 50 copies/mL). These tests performed well and the serum showed excellent stability between various storage conditions. The use of DBS for the detection of antiHCV can be performed in HCV+ individuals and with HIV/HCV+ coinfection, especially in cases of patients with detectable HCV RNA+. However, DBS was found to be less sensitive in HIV/HCV+ coinfected patients. Commercial EIAs can be optimized for antiHCV detection in DBS. Disclosure­of­Interest: None Declared.