TREAT Asia Quality Assessment Scheme (TAQAS) to standardize the outcome of HIV genotypic resistance testing in a group of Asian laboratories.
The TREAT Asia (Therapeutics, Research, Education, and AIDS Training in Asia) Network is building capacity for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type-1 (HIV-1) drug resistance testing in the region. The objective of the TREAT Asia Quality Assessment Scheme - designated TAQAS - is to standardize HIV-1 genotypic resistance testing (HIV genotyping) among laboratories to permit rigorous comparison of results from different clinics and testing centres. TAQAS has evaluated three panels of HIV-1-positive plasma from clinical material or low-passage, culture supernatant for up to 10 Asian laboratories. Laboratory participants used their standard protocols to perform HIV genotyping. Assessment was in comparison to a target genotype derived from all participants and the reference laboratory's result. Agreement between most participants at the edited nucleotide sequence level was high (>98%). Most participants performed to the reference laboratory standard in detection of drug resistance mutations (DRMs). However, there was variation in the detection of nucleotide mixtures (0-83%) and a significant correlation with the detection of DRMs (p<0.01). Interpretation of antiretroviral resistance showed approximately 70% agreement among participants when different interpretation systems were used but >90% agreement with a common interpretation system, within the Stanford University Drug Resistance Database. Using the principles of external quality assessment and a reference laboratory, TAQAS has demonstrated high quality HIV genotyping results from Asian laboratories.
Land
Sally
S
National Serology Reference Laboratory, Australia. sally@nrl.gov.au
Cunningham
Philip
P
Zhou
Jialun
J
Frost
Kevin
K
Katzenstein
David
D
Kantor
Rami
R
Chen
Yi-Ming Arthur
YM
Oka
Shinichi
S
DeLong
Allison
A
Sayer
David
D
Smith
Jeffery
J
Dax
Elizabeth M
EM
Law
Matthew
M
D001208:Asia; D024882:Drug Resistance, Viral; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards*; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care