Increased detectability of plasma HIV-1 RNA after introduction of a new assay and altered specimen-processing procedures.

Rebeiro, Peter F; Kheshti, Asghar; Bebawy, Sally S; Stinnette, Samuel E; Erdem, Husamettin; Tang, Yi-Wei; Sterling, Timothy R; Raffanti, Stephen P et al. · Clin Infect Dis · 2008

case_series · Level IV

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Abstract

After changes to assay and specimen-processing methods, plasma human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA was frequently detectable in patients who previously had well-suppressed HIV-1 RNA levels. This artifact is attributable to shipping frozen plasma in primary plasma preparation tubes and is not caused by the HIV-1 RNA detection assay; it can be avoided by shipping plasma in a secondary tube.

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