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The doctors who will be diagnosing the hepatitis E will first check the medical history of the patient. The doctor will give importance on the alcohol consumption by the patient, the various medications that the patient has gone through, the previous surgeries that the patient has gone through and the sexual activity of the patient. The doctor will also check the liver as well. The doctor will also ask the patient to go through the blood tests as well as the liver panel tests along with ELISA II, RIBA II. The doctor may also ask you to go for a liver biopsy where the doctor will test a part of your liver under the microscope.

When diagnosing hepatitis E, your healthcare provider will begin by asking questions about your medical history, including questions about:

1.Sexual history.
2.Alcohol and/or drug use
3.Any recent travel
4.Family history of medical conditions
5.Current medications
6.Current medical conditions
7.Symptoms

He or she will also perform a physical exam to look for signs and symptoms of hepatitis. Hepatitis E symptoms and signs are indistinguishable from hepatitis A or hepatitis B symptoms. Therefore, tests will be needed in order to make a hepatitis E diagnosis.

Tests Used for Diagnosing Hepatitis E
If your healthcare provider suspects hepatitis E, he or she will order certain tests that help in diagnosing it. Some of these tests look at certain levels of liver enzymes in the blood (these tests are known as liver enzyme tests). Other tests look for antibodies that the body has made against the hepatitis E virus. Unfortunately, these antibody tests are not widely available.

HEV can be found by microscopically examining a stool sample, but this is not a reliable test, as the virus often dies when stored for a short time. Like other hepatitis viruses, HEV stimulates the body’s immune system to produce a substance called an antibody, which can swallow up and destroy the virus. Blood tests can determine elevated antibody levels, which indicate the presence of HEV virus in the body. Unfortunately, such antibody blood tests are not widely available.

Since cases of hepatitis E are not clinically distinguishable from other types of acute viral hepatitis, diagnosis is made by blood tests which detect elevated antibody levels of specific antibodies to hepatitis E in the body or by detecting small portions of genetic material through a test known as reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Unfortunately, such tests are not widely available.

Hepatitis E should be suspected in outbreaks of waterborne hepatitis occurring in developing countries, especially if the disease is more severe in pregnant women, or if hepatitis A has been excluded. If laboratory tests are not available, epidemiologic evidence can help in establishing a diagnosis.