Affiliation:
1. Departments of Medicine and Clinical Laboratories, North Shore University Hospital–NYU School of Medicine, Manhasset, New York
Abstract
ABSTRACT
This study compared levels of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNA in plasma as measured by the Quantiplex branched-DNA and NucliSens nucleic acid sequence-based amplification assays. RNA was detectable in 118 of 184 samples (64.13%) by the Quantiplex assay and in 171 of 184 samples (92.94%) by the NucliSens assay. Regression analysis indicated that a linear relationship existed between the two sets of values (
P
< 0.0001), although the Quantiplex and NucliSens values were significantly different (
P
< 0.001), with the NucliSens values being approximately 0.323 log higher. Spearman correlation analysis indicated that the overall changes in patient viral load patterns were highly correlative between the two assays:
r
= 0.912,
P
< 0.0001. The lower limits of sensitivity were determined to be approximately 100 copies/ml and 1,200 to 1,400 copies/ml for the NucliSens and Quantiplex assays, respectively.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology