title: Performance evaluation of the COBAS/TaqMan HIV-1 v2.0 in HIV-1 positive patients with low viral load: a comparative study.
abstract: HIV-1 viral load determination is a crucial step for monitoring the efficacy of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and predicts disease progression. Real-time PCR based assays are available for monitoring the viral load. They differ in sensitivity, genomic target region and dynamic range. In this study, the performance of the Roche Cobas Taqman HIV-1 v2.0 was evaluated on plasma samples from HIV-1 positive patients in parallel with the Abbott RealTime HIV-1 assay in a routine diagnostic setting. Overall, there was a good agreement between the two assays. However, some samples detected by the Abbott RealTime HIV-1 assay but below the limit of quantitation of the assay were found negative result when tested with the Roche Cobas Taqman HIV-1 v2.0. It is conceivable that signal anomalies or background noise may affect the lower-end precision of the Abbott RealTime HIV-1 assay. Based on these results, it is concluded that it is not recommended to switch platform during longitudinal viral load monitoring of HIV-1 positive patients.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Virology, Foundation Polyclinic Tor Vergata, Viale Oxford, 81-00133 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Pierpaolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Paba
authors.forename: Lavinia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fabeni
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ciccozzi
authors.forename: Carlo Federico
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Perno
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ciotti
mesh_terms: D016903:Drug Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D025202:Molecular Diagnostic Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D010949:Plasma / Q000821:virology; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D019562:Viral Load / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic