Introduction

The hepatitis E virus (HEV) belongs to the species OrthohepevirusA within the Hepeviridae family and has a single-stranded positive-sense RNA genome. HEV is prevalent worldwide and is considered one of the main causes of viral acute hepatitis 1. So far, eight HEV genotypes (gt) have been distinguished, which differ in their host tropism and epidemiology 1. In Germany and some other countries in Europe and North America, gt 3 in particular is endemic. Domestic and wild pigs represent an important animal reservoir for this genotype 1,2. The most important source of infection for humans is the consumption of raw or insufficiently cooked meat. Other transmission routes are direct animal contact, consumption of water or agricultural products contaminated with manure, organ transplants and blood transfusions 3. Under immunosuppression, infections with gt 3 (and rarely gt 4) can become chronic 1. In contrast, gt 1 and 2 are limited to humans as hosts and are rarely detected in industrialized countries. Infections with these types are considered travel-related, especially since major outbreaks have been reported in regions with poor hygienic conditions 1. The number of HEV infections reported annually is steadily increasing in many industrialized countries, mainly due to increased awareness among medical staff and the use of more sensitive diagnostic tests 4,5.
Laboratory diagnostics play a central role in the detection of acute and chronic HEV infections and provide information on the spread of HEV6. According to the guidelines of the European Association for the Study of the Liver, a combination of specific antibody and viral genome detection is recommended 7. While HEV RNA can be detected very early in the acute course of infection, the detection of HEV IgM and IgG antibodies provides information on acute and convalescent infections as well as seroprevalence. In immunocompromised patients, reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based (quantitative) detection of HEV RNA is essential, as antibodies are sometimes not measurable7.
With few exceptions, most of the available tests for the detection of HEV antibodies are performed manually in enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) format 8. DiaSorin has recently launched a fully automated high-throughput test for the detection of anti-HEV IgM and IgG antibodies 9. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the new LiaisonĀ® MUREX anti-HEV IgG and IgM assays in comparison to the established and widely usedrecom Well/recom Line HEV IgM and IgG ELISAs/immunoblots from Mikrogen. To our knowledge, there is no data on this yet.