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Updated: Aug 30, 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
Analysis of undetectable HIV RNA using survival analysis: results must be interpreted carefully
Rodolphe Thiébaut1, Hélène Jacqmin-Gadda, Valérie Journot
1INSERM U593, Institut de Santé Publique d'Epidémiologie et de Développement, Bordeaux, France. rodolphe.thiebaut@isped.u-bordeaux2.fr
Abstract:
This methodological note exemplifies the drawbacks of conventional survival analysis for studying the determinants of the evolution of HIV RNA after the initiation of a HAART regimen in observational cohort studies. The potential for loss of information might yield differential misclassification biases and therefore unreliable results. Longitudinal models are better suited to analyze the repeated measures of a continuous outcome such as HIV RNA.

