Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 12, 2026
Amplifying and Quantifying HIV-1 RNA in HIV Infected Individuals with Viral Loads Below the Limit of Detection by Standard Clinical Assays
Published on: September 26, 2011
Virological and immunological profiles among patients with undetectable viral load followed prospectively for 24
T L Katzenstein1, H Ullum, B T Røge
1Departments of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Immunology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. Katzenstein@dadlnet.dk
Objective:
To quantify HIV-RNA in plasma, in lymphoid tissue and proviral DNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and to relate these to immunological markers among patients with plasma viral load counts of
Methods:
A prospective study of one hundred and three patients was undertaken with an inclusion criteria of plasma viral load of
Results:
The median plasma viral load was < 20 copies/mL with no increase during follow-up. Thirty-one per cent had plasma viral load of /= 1 measurement with 21-200 and 25% had >/= 1 sample with plasma HIV-RNA > 200 copies/mL. Lymphoid tissue viral load was low at enrolment and declined further during follow-up. Baseline HIV-DNA and immunoglobulin (IgA) differed significantly between the plasma viral load rebound groups (P < 0.05).
Conclusion:
In this cohort, selected solely on the basis of having a plasma viral load of
