HTLV antibody screening using mini-pools.
At the present time, the UK blood transfusion services do not screen blood donations for anti-HTLV. This presentation describes a pilot study to ascertain the feasibility of HTLV antibody screening using mini-pools and also provides an estimate of HTLV prevalence within our donor population in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Abbott/Murex HTLV I/II GE80/81 ELISA was selected for the trial. Thirty confirmed HTLV positive library samples were tested at various dilutions and five were shown to be nonreactive at a dilution of 1:100. Residues of mini-pools (of up to 95 individual donations) prepared for HCV NAT testing were tested with the Abbott/Murex GE80/81 assay. Of 6666 mini-pools (equivalent to 570 609 donations) tested, six were repeatedly reactive. All six mini-pools were confirmed HTLV antibody positive by line immunoassay. Four were confirmed to be HTLV-I positive, one HTLV-II positive and one HTLV positive (unable to type). Dilutions (1:100) of the five HTLV "nonreactive" positive samples were included in each test plate and used to determine a grey-zone cut-off. Using this grey-zone system an additional six (0.09%) mini-pool samples gave repeatedly reactive grey-zone results, none of which were confirmed. The minimum Scottish/Irish HTLV donor prevalence was shown to be 1:95 000.
Dow
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Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service Microbiology Reference Unit, West of Scotland Blood Transfusion Centre, 25 Shelley Road, Glasgow G12 0XB, UK. brian.dow@snbts.csa.scot.nhs.uk
Munro
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Ferguson
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K
Buchanan
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I
Jarvis
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L
Jordan
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Franklin
I M
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McClelland
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M
D001782:Blood Donors; D015480:Deltaretrovirus Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D015491:HTLV-II Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015995:Prevalence; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D006113:United Kingdom
D015480:Deltaretrovirus Antibodies