Grosso L, Schock J, Shepard R, Brambilla D, Cronin M, Fiscus SA; Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

Program Abstr 4th Conf Retrovir Oppor Infect Conf Retrovir Oppor Infect 4th 1997 Wash DC. 1997 Jan 22-26; 4th: 179 (abstract no. 620).

UNC, Chapel Hill, NC.

Objective: To determine the sensitivity, accuracy, reproducibility, and stability of dried blood spots for the quantitation of plasma HIV-1 RNA. Methods: 100 ul of whole blood collected in EDTA from 90 random HIV + patients was spotted on 2 different types of filter paper (Schleicher and Schull #903 and Isocode). Cell-free plasma obtained from the same tube was stored at -70 degrees C. HIV-1 RNA from both specimens was determined by NASBA. RNA copies/ml of plasma from the spot were calculated as: Corrected spot copies/ml plasma = Spot/[(100-hematocrit)/100]. For statistical purposes, specimens with values less than limit of detection were assigned a value of 999 copies/ml. Results: In preliminary results from 76 patients, 77% of the plasma samples had detectable RNA compared with 72% of the spots dotted on #903 paper. There was 83% concordance between the 2 assays. Once corrected for the hematocrit, 93% of the calculated dot values were within 3-fold (0.5 log) of the plasma value (Spearman correlation 0.91). Reproducibility is being assessed by comparing duplicate specimens in each of the assays using the Isocode paper. For the first 14 patients the mean difference in duplicate plasmas was 0.22 log, for duplicate spots was 0.14 log, and the difference between mean plasma and mean spots was 0.10 log. The dried spots were stable for at least a week at room temperature. Additional stability and field test data are in progress and will be reported. Conclusions: This method appears to provide an accurate measurement of plasma HIV-1 RNA suitable for primitive field conditions. The nucleic acid recovered from the spots should also be useful for drug sensitivity and HIV-1 clade testing.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
• Desiccation
• Filtration
• HIV
• HIV Core Protein p24
• HIV Infections
• HIV Seropositivity
• Humans
• Plasma
• RNA
• RNA, Viral
• Self-Sustained Sequence Replication
• Sensitivity and Specificity
• blood
• immunology

Other ID:

• 97926602

UI: 102223611

From Meeting Abstracts