The use of data mining to investigate a possible quality problem with ultrasensitive HIV viral load data at a large reference laboratory.
Suppression of HIV viral load to <50 copies/mL, the lower limit of detection for the ultrasensitive assays, has been shown to correlate with favorable clinical outcome. Patients periodically exhibited transient or sustained low-level viremia based on this test. In order to investigate a possible quality concern, we used our corporate data warehouse to examine the patterns in our data over time as well as across geographic regions.
Koski
Eileen
E
Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, Advanced Diagnostics IT, Teterboro, NJ, USA.
Heseltine
Peter N R
PN
Kagan
Ron M
RM
Maddo
Ann E
AE
Geller
Jake
J
D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D019451:Information Management; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000592:standards*; D019562:Viral Load; D014766:Viremia / Q000175:diagnosis*
D012367:RNA, Viral